Parallel Worlds
by Sophie-Lou
Summary: HIATUS. Sophie is a witch, but not by chance. Upon a finding a strange book that had belonged to her mother the truth is uncovered. Howl is along for the ride, and who is that mysterious Alan Smith?
1. IW: Sophie makes her peace

I've been working on this story for quite a while, then I forgot about. Then when I was looking through the disks looking for a story that has nothing to do with HMC, I came across the first two chapters and I started writing chapter three. This is a story I seriously killed myself in planning and one of the only stories I know exactly where I'm going with. It has a main plot and I hope you all like it.

**Howl's Moving Castle is copyright of Diana Wynne Jones (Maybe Miyazaki owns a few bits seeing as he made a movie out of it) and I only own the plotline and a few of the characters created for the sake of this story.**

I love HMC so much I even have a web site with info for both book and movie. Please visit my page on to see the site. Thank you! Enjoy the story!

_Written for my own mother, Anne._

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**Chapter One: In which Sophie makes her peace and gets a new dress**

In the land of Ingary, where witches and wizards have powers such as turning people into old women and mixing up people's bodies really exist, a moving castle floated over the many towns of Ingary. Sometimes it was in the north, sometimes in the west, sometimes in the east and sometimes the south. It could even be northwest, southeast and every direction you could think of. You could look over your shoulder and there it would be, steaming out awful black smoke out of its awful black turrets.

This infamous castle belonged to the Wizard Howl, the now newly appointed Royal Wizard, and one of the most powerful wizards in Ingary. He had been known to have a terrible reputation. It was once said that he would snatch up pretty girls and suck out their souls or some said he'd eat their hearts. Of course, the heart eating part was in a way true. In truth, Howl would court many pretty girls, hooking them with his dashing looks and charming smile. He would always do this, at least until the girl fell in love with him, then he couldn't be bothered. The heartless thing was this: after they fell in love with him, _he'd_ get bored with_ them_ since courting them wasn't much fun anymore. _Heartless_ Howl, that was horrible Howl!

Of course, horrible Howl didn't live alone in this ugly moving castle. Along side him lived his apprentice, fifteen-year-old Michael Fisher, and Calcifer, a fire demon. This demon was once a falling star who was rescued by Howl when he fell from the sky and Howl pitied him, as he was so scared dying. They entered into a contract in which Howl was forced to give his heart to Calcifer. Of course, like most contracts, there was always a catch hidden in the small print. Harmony didn't reign for long. Both of them were slowly but surely going to the bad, and the outlook was far from bright for either of them. They were turning into a male re-make of the Witch of the Waste and her fire demon, Lily Angorian.

Things would probably have gone down hill from there had it not been for the fourth resident of the moving castle, in the shape of an old woman, matching in uninvited one night in May. It was more right to say shape seeing as it wasn't really her shape. This old woman, who was not only too energetic of a ninety-year-old woman, wasn't a ninety-year-old woman at all. She was an eighteen-year-old girl. In fact she was a rather beautiful eighteen-year-old young girl who, just like Howl, had been cursed by the Witch of the Waste, who had become jealous of her magical skills and rudeness. As a result she made the young girl an old woman.

But the Witch's curse on Howl isn't important to this story. One thing that is important to the story is that the following had happened in the course of one day previous to the day this story begins: the Witch was dead; her fire demon was dead; Howl and Calcifer's contract was broken, and Sophie's curse was lifted.

This rather strange story starts the day after the Witch's death.

The moving castle that floated along the different towns and cities of Ingary, the residence of the castle all slept till late for it was only twelve hours ago that the Witch of the Waste had been defeated and her fire demon destroyed. Everyone within the ugly, steaming castle slept. At least all except one; the only girl and if you may, lady-of-the-house, eighteen-year-old Sophie. Eighteen, she was finally eighteen again and she was proud of it. She couldn't sleep from her excitement. All night she had stayed up. She could do nothing but feel at her velvet soft skin and feeling at her now, not long nose, but perfect nose. She kept pulling large strands of her hair, bringing it close to her face and looking at it. She couldn't get over the thrill of being herself again. It was as if she feared that it would all turn out to be a dream, and that maybe she'd wake up and find herself an old woman. Sophie had to pinch herself a few times to make sure. She did so till her lovely pale hand was slightly red and marked from her nails digging into them.

"I really am Sophie," she said with a thrilled smile, "Young Sophie."

Only managing to get an hour or so of sleep Sophie was up at the crack of dawn. She couldn't sleep now, not when she could move so quickly, now she could run and do all the things she couldn't do as an old woman. She never took advantage of being young woman, she just resigned herself to growing old in a hate shop. Then when the Witch took her youth, Sophie realised just how short youth was. Now, she was out to make the most of it.

Sophie slipped on her horrible grey dress. It was the only dress she had. Once she was dressed she saw that Calcifer was still asleep, fizzing and sizzling as if he was snoring under the logs. She smiled and opened the door purple knob down, deciding to go out into the place of flowers to watch the sun come up. She stepped out and breathed in the warmth. It made her feel weak at the knees. The smell seemed to be sweeter than before. The warm winds brushed Sophie's skin and played with her lovely locks of red hair. Settling down on some hard ground, she watched the sun rise over the long, long desert of the wastes.

The sun seemed to come up very quickly. Maybe it was because Sophie was enjoying herself. She had never come to appreciate little things like the sun or the fact that she was quite an attractive girl. That moment when the scarecrow tried to get in the castle and she thought for a moment she was going to die made her reflect on her life. She had always seen things like the sun, the moon, the sky, all the minor things in life that people take for granted.

As for her looks, had she taken them seriously they would probably help her find a husband. Then she'd always remember that she was the eldest of three, which in the strange world made you the most ugly, most useless sister out of all of your siblings. Of course, no one ever saw Sophie as anything-other than 'Sophie Hatter' the eldest daughter of Mr. Hatter.

So many things tossed in Sophie's head as she grew up, she knew she was useless and would have a fairly boring life, maybe she'd manage to get a respectable husband but he'd be nothing much even if she managed that. If anything, she'd be the one to upgrade him, she was well to do and very talented with making clothes and hats. She had more talents than her younger sisters Lettie and Martha did when it came to the business. Of course, they had talents in other ways. For example, Lettie was considered the most beautiful and witchier than the other two. But even that was over shadowed by Sophie's talent of talking life into things, and no one had realised just how beautiful Sophie was until they saw the change from old to young. She might have been Lettie's fair twin.

All of this and more flashed in Sophie's mind as her hair blew across her face. She didn't care about her looks, or anything like that, she was just happy to be _her_ again. To _be_ Sophie Hatter.

Sophie looked out to the steaming wastes, its heat blowing at her fair and making it blush. She remembered how sorry she had felt for the Witch for having to live there. 'I do, in a way feel sorry for her' Sophie thought. Just because of her home didn't seem a good enough reason, though. After all this was the same old witch that had turned her into an old woman, planned to kill both her and Howl, and made a jigsaw of Ben Suliman and Prince Justin. Only a fool would give that wicked creature pity. But then again, Sophie thought, she was old and some old women went a bit mad in the head. Anyone, over 100 years old would, wouldn't they?

Looking to her side, she noticed some beautiful flowers blooming at the end. She recalled that Howl had told her the Wicth of the Waste had objected to these flowers because she liked to think of herself as a flower blooming in the Wastes. Without thinking about it Sophie cut a flower with large red petals. It was one of her flowers, the sort no one else could find. Getting to her feet, she walked over to the edge, just where the the ground was beginning to crumble. Standing in silence for a moment before she began to talk to the flower, twisting it in her fingers as she spoke.

"Witch of the Waste," said Sophie, as if she was talking to the Witch, not a flower. "I know that you have never really done me, or anyone that much good. You always caused trouble for everyone and did so for over fifty years. But inspite of it all I imagine that, though it hadn't been yours for many years, you had a heart once. What I mean is this; Howl gave his heart to Calcifer because he felt sorry for him. You must have felt sorry for Miss Angorian, or whatever her name is. You must have once been a good woman, once. Probably had a plan to just live out your life like most witches do. Though I'm not that sure what it is like…"

Sophie found herself babbling things that probably didn't matter. "Witch, I imagine you went to the bad because of that fire demon, not your own desire, and now you're dead you can go to wherever it is the dead go to." She raised the flower to her lips and whispered very secretly, "Rest in peace, Witch of the Waste."

Fianlly, she tossed the flower into the hot wind that blew into the wastes. The wing crashed it into the burning, cracked sand. Just touching it seemed to wilt the flower. The wind dragged the dainty, beautiful flower across the mushy clay of the wastes. The flower itself, not only wilted, but all its petals fell off. That was the last sight Sophie saw of the flower until it disappeared into the distance.

It was sad, this gesture was almost a metaphor for the Witch of the Waste's life. Sophie believed that the flower not only suited this peace making but it represented the Witch perfectly. After she gave her heart away, she became what some would call 'evil' and very slowly went mad. Now, somewhere out there, she lay unburried. Just a heap at bones.

The castle door was open, and standing at it was Wizard Howl. Peacefully he watched her settle down on the grass again and look out into the wastes, watching the nonthingness, unaware she was being watched. He shook his head and just looked at Sophie. He was tempted to go out to her and play a key part in this emotional, peace-making action. But he didn't dare. Instead, he just closed the door and made his way towards the grate, which at first, he thought it was empty.

Howl sat down in front of it and sighed, "Only Sophie would try and make peace with the Witch of the Waste! She's too _nice_. Too nice for her own good."

"The Witch is dead," said the grate. Howl looked up with no shock, and saw a familiar blue pointed face suddenly appear and look at him with his orange eyes. "Sophie is trying to do things her own way. It was a touching speech she made too. Even used a flower."

Howl nodded and groaned, suddenly bursting out his confusion with her, "She really is too nice, and too clever. But she's got a temper, she's an air-head, she's horrible when she snorts and she has her own way of doing things that brings total chaos to people and it doesn't make sense!"

Calcifer sizzled and crackled, "She is a woman. I've never met a female fire demon who wasn't more evil than good but I can say this; females don't make sense."

But Howl wasn't listening; he was looking at the door, obviously waiting for Sophie to come in.

Calcifer spat and laughed, "But she makes a lot more sense then you, heart-full Howl!"

"Heart-_full_ Howl?"

He had never been called that before. Heart_less _Howl, horrible Howl, and a few very insulting names used by the fathers of the women whose hearts he had broken. But never heart-_full_.

"Why do you call me that, old blue face?" Howl asked, "Why aren't you planning to enjoy your freedom now it's here?" It was obvious that he was slivering out of the heart-full Howl comment, as it was leading somewhere he'd rather not go.

"I have another thousand years to do all that," Calcifer reminded him with a huge purple grin. "Besides,it was raining in Market Chipping again, so I thought about going out near the flowers - which I didn't get sparks on by the way. What is it with Sophie and flowers?" Howl just shrugged as Calcifer went on, "… and who should I see but the newly restored to young girl Sophie, sending blessings to the Witch of the Waste! Then I saw she wasn't alone. Off near the castle door did I see heart-full Howl looking out on her, day dreaming, musing, pining, yearning for her. And you call _her_ an air-head, you were in your own world! Two of a kind."

Howl was taken aback, "I never daydream," he said proudly. "Never had the need to. I always have everything I need in reality."

"Everything except a woman true, and fair!" Calcifer said pointing out of the grate. It was clear to Howl that Calcifer was going to start teasing him, "It's obvious you want Sophie to fill that. You have to make you feelings clear to her, you know."

Howl was looking pale, and almost as pale as milk that was standing out on the table. Curse that Sophie, he thought weakly, what is she doing to me. Slowly, he regained his dignity and went on, trying too hard to hide what he was thinking.

"Sophie?" he said quietly but proudly. "Why her of all the women in the world? There are plenty of young women out there with a nicer temper, clever and just as pretty!"

"Well, for one," Calcifer began. "There was that song and dance you went about yesterday saying that the two of you should live happily ever after together. Then there was the fact that I had your heart and I could tell that you were 'digging' her even before you knew she was that girl on May Day. Then when you found out about her you never wanted her to leave the castle. You hid the boots and everything, didn't you? It wasn't always for her safety, but to make sure she wouldn't leave you!"

Howl didn't deny it, for that would be lying. But all he did was try to point out about his other reasons, "She was following me, plus, you know how her heart was misbehaving. It would be horrible for an eighteen-year-old girl to die from a heart attack! I can't help that I'm a caring person. I didn't want her heart breaking…"

"Almost as much as your heart when you're near her, huh?" Calcifer nodded his pointed form and gave Howl the 'don't give me that junk' bit. "Well, what else? You had a go at me for not telling you sooner about her (that time when she and Michael went out to catch that star). Then when she came back you targeted your anger at her!" he then sizzled a bit. "It was at this point I knew your were falling, hook, line and sinker."

Howl glared at him.

"Don't worry she was no better what with using that scarecrow as an excuse not to leave the castle..."

"Really?" Howl said keenly, before stopping. "Er.. I mean - how would you know? You're not a human, you don't understand human attraction. Even if she was young whose's to say she wouldn't be a Jane Farrier in disguise?" he asked.

He wasn't about to admit to his fire demon that it was right.

"I may not understand how human attraction works, but I can tell you're attracted. Hell, she's not even my species and _I _was attracted! One because of your heart and two cause of her strange magic!" Calcifer said, answering Howl's first statement. "And there is such thing as loving someone for who they are inside, and not what they look like. Even before you knew she was young, I knew you were attracted. I could tell that scared you a little so you ended up having a go at her and looking for 'new sport', which is very like you I must admit!"

Howl blushed slightly and gave a slight grump. He didn't like Calcifer when he was pointing out the facts. He also didn't like it when he blushed; it made him feel stupid.

"I felt sorry for Sophie too, you know. Then you messed about with her, flashing her your smile but all she ever did was be nice to you and scowled you, but then she puts up with your faults. Then you made those ridiculous attempts at making her jealous with the old fire demon, and her sister. I mean the fire demon was a genuine attempt to keep out of here, and Sophie was good at it, but her own sister. You just did that make yourself feel good."

Howl sighed. That was true no matter how much he denied it. He _had_ spent most of Sophie's time at the castle trying to give her mixed signals and trying to whined her up, make her jealous. Though, had he been doing it since even Lettie Hatter? If what Calcifer said was true then he had turned on the charm even before he even noticed. That had never happened before.

"And while we're on the subject of May Day," Calcifer suddenly started again.

"When did we get onto the subject of May Day?" Howl snapped back at the fire, "aren't you done yet?"

"No" Calcifer said shortly, fizzing happily. "I remember last May Day when you came back early and said you had met one of the most beautiful girls you had ever seen. It was a shock to find out you didn't even know who she was or what her name was. A week later it turns out she's disappeared off the face of the Earth!"

Howl kept glaring, his mind wondering how he could sliver out of this, as Calcifer went on with his trip down memory lane. "Suddenly, you find a young girl who looks similar to her, Sophie's sister Lettie."

Calcifer looked at his former master and shook his head, "I never thought I'd see you look like this. You've always been love sick but, my goodness. You went out without getting ready first and you risked your life by rushing off to the wastes to save Sophie. You would never have done that for any woman, and even if you did, you'd have made her wait while you got ready in the bathroom! You're faulted and she's faulted, but neither of you care. Face it Howl, you're a perfect match!"

Howl felt his heart make a thud as Calcifer finished, and if felt so strange. He hadn't felt like ever before in his life. A strange feeling went though him, made his legs shake, and his heart thud even harder. Despite how annoying Sophie could be with her cleaning, her snorting and her mood swings that could kill, Howl found himself not caring, and thinking how much he'd hate it if she were any other way. And despite all of his faults, Sophie seemed to put up with and sometimes not even notice them.

It was very exciting! Was this love true, for keeps, forever and ever? He had never cared so much about someone this much or for so long. Sophie had more or less admitted her feelings for Howl, despite her being strong minded and trying to protest at first. And Howl's feelings for her were still there. Never had he loved someone past their admitting their love for him, and never had he for one second thought he'd put someone else's life above his own. He was a coward; he'd sell out his own mother to save himself, but not Sophie, never Sophie, she was far too good to be used to save his petty life.

She was the same. When she thought Miss Angorian was a real person and the one who Howl loved, she had gone to the wastes, not for her own sake, or the sake of that demon but for Howl's sake. She did it from fear that he'd end up getting killed. Never had anyone been that caring of him before. She had valued his life above her own, and why did she do that? Because she must really, truly love him!

This thought seemed to echo through Howl's head and his excitement at such a discovery amazed him. He almost wanted to run out there to the wastes, grab her, and swing her around and around. She was the one who took his heart and placed it back inside his chest. My heart was literally in her hands, he thought, and she cared for it as if it were a little bird. She had held it with care and love for the person it belonged to.

"Listen!" began Calcifer, but before he could go on the door opened and Sophie came in carrying a bunch of flowers.

She swept past Howl and acted as if he wasn't there. All of these cheerful thoughts seemed to die away into a scream of panic. Was she angry at him? He just watched her helplessly as she walked around the room, sweeping past him, putting the flowers into a vase and arranging them prettily.

He had to break the silence, "Good morning to you too."

Sophie said nothing, other than a slight, 'Hmmm?' He followed her around the room ending with Sophie turning around and finally facing him. Howl scanned it slightly. She didn't seem to be giving any reason for acting this way. Her eyes just looked straight into his before she finally broke with a simple smile: "We never say 'good morning' to each other." She then slipped past Howl and un-hooked the frying pan. She just stood facing Calcifer, "Head down Calcifer."

His head bent down and made the eggs sizzle in the pan. Howl then saw that Sophie was wearing that horrible, ugly, ugly, ugly for a thousand times ugly, very un-suited grey dress of hers.

It's far too ugly, thought Howl, For such a pretty face. Howl thought this as he sat and watched her cooking. He was admiring the face that he had not yet truly taken into account yet. Even through the hidiousness of the grey dress, he was able to pick out her beautiful features. Sophie's face was very different to that of the old woman, though you could still tell they could have been the same person. The main thing that he noticed was that Sophie's nose wasn't really long at all. It was actually quite a small nose, a pale one that matched up with the rest of her face. Her complexion was very fair and her cheeks were naturally a shade of pink. Her lips were pink too, not large and red like her sister Lettie, but Sophie was much more attractive. Sophie had a natural beauty that countered every other woman he had ever met. Half of them had been covered in make-up. Sophie hadn't done anything with herself having just woken up. Yet she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

Sophie had a heart-shaped face. Her best feature, in Howl's opinion, her long ginger, no, strawberry-blond hair, looking soft and beautiful even though she hadn't brushed it. Her neck wasn't long nor was it little. It was just perfect. When he tried to look further down her, three things happened. One, he found that the ugly grey dress was shapeless didn't allow him to look any further down her torso. Two, he began to realise he was stepping beyond the point as acceptable and started to look away but not in time for three, Sophie had noticed him looking at her and interrupted him.

"What on earth are you doing?" Sophie asked, she didn't seem angry or upset but more confused, blushing and suddenly feeling very weary of the way she looked.

Howl felt a little guilty about startling her and didn't really know how to explain that he was only admiring her loveliness. He certainly wasn't one of _those_ sorts of men, and he doubted Sophie thought he was, but he still worried. Then he realised there wasn't a way to tell her why he was looking, so he just told her the truth. "Just viewing a vision of beauty," he flashed her a charming smile at her. He then made his hurt and sad look, "I hope I'm not causing any offence, cariad."

Sophie's face blushed even more when she heard the term _cariad_. She had heard him use it many times and had quickly picked up that that one word of Welsh, a tongue she knew very little about, meant 'sweetheart'. She hugged her arms around herself tighter, not wondering what to make of this. She'd never been in a situation where Howl, or any man for that matter, had taken the time out of their larger ego to look at her. Lettie and sometimes Martha normally over shadowed her. As an old woman however, she never had to worry about Howl looking at her, as she had not been a pretty picture to look at; she had been shrivelled. Now she was young again, though she was thrilled to be eighteen again, it had not yet occurred to her that her sudden change of appearance might have an effect on Howl.

Fanny had asked Sophie to come and live with her as "a pretty young girl living with a man she is not married to doesn't look good. People are bound to start talking. If he doesn't ask you to marry him _properly_ soon, I'll have to _order_ you to come and live with me. I'll have no stepdaughter of mine turned into a joke by any man, particularly Wizard Howl!"

Sophie tried to ignore Howl, who had thankfully stopped staring at her and seemed to be shamefully looking in the other direction.

During all of this, Calcifer had been close to pushing his head up from all his trying not to laugh. Sophie got back to the cooking and Howl was too busy thinking about that horrible grey dress she was wearing. He thought about asking Sophie if she was thinking of getting a new one. If she did, then she could finally get rid of that ugly thing. In the end he just stood there starring at her again, while Michael came in looking cheerful as always. It seemed like he had had the best sleep in the house. As he came in he noticed Howl staring at Sophie. He tried to ignore it and turned his attention to Sophie.

It turned out Sophie wasn't the only one who recalled last night. Frankly, she had been surprised Howl hadn't brought it up yet. He didn't drink _that_ much so he must have some memory. The again, maybe he didn't want to remember or wasn't thinking straight. He had hit his head after all. Sophie was worried their happily ever after was the words of a man with a large bump on his head who didn't know what he was agreeing to.

Michael broke the tension with his lighthearted attitude. "Sophie?" he said walking towards her. "I didn't think you'd still be here. I thought you'd gone with your stepmother last night. Are you still thinking about going to live with your stepmother and Mr. Smith, only Martha said that--"

Howl finally snapped out of his trace. Sophie? Leaving? Would she do that? Was that why she was so quiet this morning? Was she really considering leaving the castle? He finally spoke up, "You're not really thinking about it are you?"

Sophie turned around looking a little flushed. She didn't want to leave, she had made every excuse in the book to not leave, with the scarecrow. But she remembered what Fanny had said: 'If nothing is announced with you and Howl, then come and live with me. Mr Smith and I would be so happy to have you. He and his family are just dying to meet you.' That was ringing in Sophie's head. She pulled the pan off the grate and as she slipped it all onto plates.

"Well" Sophie began, "I'd be lying if I said wasn't thinking about it. But I'm too settled here, so I'll only leave if I get in your way. I hope that's okay."

She said this as if she was trying her best to convince herself she wasn't considering it. It was true though, Sophie _was_ too settled and _would_ find it very painful to leave, and she knew that Mrs. Fairfax would be heart broken. She had her heart set on Sophie and Howl getting married.

That thought made Sophie blush again.

Oh confound it, she thought, Leaving the castle would be like running away anyway. And I won't run away from a good chance. Not in the way Mrs Fairfax wants though. No, I could be more use around this place than their maid. After all, if my gift of magic is worth looking into, I'd be much better off as Howl's apprentice like Michael is. Yes, the spells he has done with Michael look simple enough to learn. It's just those scribbles that might prove a problem.

Once the food was on the plates and on the table, they all sad down. Howl pushed Michael out of his normal seat next Sophie and took it himself. Sophie was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't really take any note to any of this, but didn't dare look Howl in the eyes. Both kept their eyes on the plate, making it awkward for both them and Michael. What did he mean? Sophie thought, daring to glance at Howl. What does 'we ought to live happily ever after' mean? Could it be that he--

As if an angel had offered her a way out the silence was broken by a knock at the door. Calcifer flared up and boomed: "Mansion door!" Eager to escape her musing, Sophie stood up and rushed towards that door. Opening on the door on the masion, she saw a pageboy standing there. It almost gave Sophie a scare as she remembered the Witch's pageboys, but this one was very smartly dressed in blue, similar to what Howl had made Michael wear that day in Kingsbury, and he scented of fresh oranges similar to one of Howl's many scents when he emerged from the bathroom. The boy bowed politely and said in a clear voice, "Miss Sophie Hatter?"

"This is she," Sophie said nodding her head politely back. Before she knew what was happened, the pageboy shoved a large box into her hands. It was white with a large red ribbon on the top, rather flat and long. Sophie put the box to one side of the doorframe and smiled at the boy. "May I ask who sent this, please?" she asked politely.

"Err... A Mr and Mrs. Sacheverell Smith" the pageboy replied, looking down at a piece of paper awkwardly. So it's from Fanny then? Sophie thought to herself. She was just about to say her goodbyes and close the door when he stopped her by putting his hand in the doorway. He was holding a card on it. "Oh, and from the other Mr. Smith, too."

The pageboy handed Sophie the card and she took it, reading her own name written in a beautiful hand. "The other, Mr. Smith?" she repeated, "Who is he?"

"The older Mr. Sacheverell Smith's nephew," the pageboy said, he then bowed and took off down the drive.

Sophie closed the door, not noticing Howl hovering right behind her. When she turned around it gave her quite a shock. He just turned on his smile and said, "Who was it?"

Sophie picked up her box and walked towards her cubby under the stairs, "Just a pageboy, bringing something for me from my stepmother. Strange she didn't drop it round herself, she's only around the corner" she pulled away the hanging curtain covering the cubby and put the box on her 'bed'. She still had the card in her hand; she was going to open it as she saw Howl's eyes lowered to her face level looking at her. "This card is from all three of them, if you want to know!" Sophie exclaimed she then put the card in with the box and pulled the curtain over it. She turned to face Howl, "And you call me 'Mrs. Nose!"

Howl just looked at her, then gave her the same look he had the day before Midsummer's day. The one that Sophie thought was put on, Howl could pretend to be miserable in heaven if it suited him, remember. "I was just asking in general, you were at the door for a while, it is my castle remember" Howl pointed out. "Also, when _you_ ask, you _are_ just being plain nosy, Miss Nose". Sophie then admitted that Howl look a little taken aback, but then again, anything that 'wasn't nice' always took him aback. Sophie felt like fighting with Howl, it gave her pleasure to see him trying to keep his temper in… He almost never really blew his top, but Sophie loved the thrill of fighting with him. She didn't know why, but secretly, she loved it because Howl took all his attention on her, and nothing else. Sophie loved being in Howl's lime light, where he could see her.

"You want me to open it now?" Sophie snapped, "Is that what you want? Just to make sure there isn't a bomb in it or something?" Howl said nothing this obviously meant he did. Sophie walk annoyed to her room again and pulled out the box and card out. "Okay, since we're worried there's a 'bomb' in it… I'll open it in the kitchen for Michael and Calcifer to see too, shall I?" Sophie said sarcastically. She walked into the kitchen and placed the box on the table.

"Are you opening it now?" Michael asked looking at the box and Sophie back and fourth.

"Yes. Howl's worried that someone stuck something exposable in here" Sophie said pulling a red ribbon away from it. "Why are you worried Howl? Scared one of the old girlfriends caught up with you?" Howl was about to take that aback too, seeing as Sophie had no reason to be mad. But when he saw her smile slightly at her quote, Howl realised she was only 'teasing' him, trying to whined him up. He found himself smile in spite of himself.

When Sophie finally pulled away the ribbon and opened the box, it wasn't a bomb or anything like that. Of course, why would Fanny send Sophie something so stupid? No, it was a new dress. It was a sort of dark red and it had a white under dress to go with it. It was very nice. Sophie had never owned a nice dress ever in her whole life, only grey, brown and black ones. Sophie looked at it and then shot them all a smile, "Doesn't look like a bomb to me!"

Michael handed Sophie the card that came with it, "Read the card, Sophie". Sophie took the card and read it out loud, that way, she wouldn't have Howl hovering over her shoulder wondering what he's missing out on. She cleared her throat and read:

"_Dearest Sophie,_

_I noticed that your grey dress was starting to fall a part and now you have your own shape again, I think you should have a nicer dress. Sacheverell, his nephew and I have decided to give you this new dress to replace the grey one._

_Please come and see me soon, love. I'd love to see how the dress looks on you._

_All my love, Fanny_."

Sophie was about to put the card down when Howl stepped in and pointed to the back of the card, "There's a P.S., there" he said. Sophie flipped it over a read that to herself…

'_P.S., (From Alan) Your stepmother showed me that picture of you and your sisters standing outside the old hat shop. That wizard was right. Grey doesn't suit you_. _Red is much better!'_ Sophie looked at this, and wondered if 'Alan' was Sacheverell's nephew.

"That Wizard!" said a sulky voice from Howl. Sophie looked away from the card only then realising that Howl's face was right up against her cheek, "Who's Alan?" he demanded curiously. Sophie moved away with the card in her hand and the dress over her arm.

"I don't know" she said. "He must be Mr. Smith's nephew." Sophie then put the card away by placing it in her dress as some women did. "Why are you so curious?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. For a brief moment she mused on the possibility that Howl was becoming 'possessive' of her. She didn't let herself think about it for long as she remembered that this was Howl she was talking about. He couldn't see past the end of his own nose and you couldn't pin himself down to anything. Sophie looked at Howl as she cleaned the plates away. Howl watched her carefully as she spoke again, "Don't bother to answer that. You must be in a nosy mood today, eh?"

Howl grinned at her, "I was wondering what it was like to be you. It is really quite fun, Miss Nose." Sophie really wasn't in the mood that morning for Howl to start teasing her. When she was an old woman she was always up of Howl and his big head. It dawned on Howl that now Sophie was young again, her nose wasn't especially big. In fact, it was a very pretty nose. He thought it was nicer than Lettie's nose. "I guess you don't have to have a big nose to be nosy, am I right Sophie?" Howl added watching her go back and forth from the table to the sink. Michael stood close to Calcifer, watching. "What are you doing, woman?"

Sophie snorted and turned her back on Howl, she wasn't in the mood for his childish attitude. "I'm going back to my hole under the stairs" she said sarcastically, leaving the plates in the sink and gathering up the dress and card again. She walked to her under-the-stairs cupboard and slammed the door so hard it made the whole castle shake, just to show Howl that she was cross. Then, maybe, he might feel a little guilty. "Oh and by the way!" Sophie called out; Howl turned to face to the door. "Brush your hair, it looks like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards, kicking and screaming!"

Now this, was a sentence that Sophie, Michael or Calcifer never thought they'd hear be said to Howl. He always tried to look his best, but since everyone had found out who Sophie really was, Howl had stopped really caring what he looked like. He hadn't brushed his hair for 48 hours.

Michael was puzzled by that fact himself, so he just stood there looking quiet. "And that's another thing" Calcifer started up again, "I bet you haven't even noticed that you look like a tiger tried to kill you and you just made a narrow escape!" How didn't say anything, he just walked into the bathroom, where he would stay for 20 minutes.

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**WOW it has been so many years since I first started this. I'm so sorry it is taking me so long to update this but with GCSEs and A-levels I have been too busy to anything but one-offs. I have the whole plan for this story and I could scan that and put it on my website if it will make you happy.**


	2. IW: Mr Smith comes to Market Chipping

**Howl's Moving Castle is copyright of Diana Wynne Jones (Maybe Miyazaki owns a few bits seeing as he made a movie out of it) and I only own the plotline and a few of the characters created for the sake of this story.**

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**Chapter Two: In which Mr. Smith comes to Market Chipping**

After a while of staying in her little cubby under the stairs, Sophie decided to come out and open the flower shop. Michael had gone, probably to go and see Martha. This annoyed Sophie because he always ran off leaving her to sort out the shop. As for Howl, he was nowhere in sight. Probably in the bathroom, Sophie snorted, Knowing Howl. Looking over to the grate, she saw it was empty. Calcifer had gone out again so the rain must have stopped in Market Chipping. Sophie walked to the window. It was odd as she was still getting used to being so much more able bodily. She was so happy about it that she wondered if she'd ever go to the palace again. She'd run right up those stairs.

The rain had stopped, she discovered when she looked out of the window. It had actually turned into a lovely sunny morning. Like Sophie's outlook, it was bright. Well, maybe a bit brighter than Sophie's outlook but she didn't mind as she was no longer angry with Howl for being an idiot that morning. It's just his way, Sophie sighed gathering up some of flowers and carrying them through to the shop. Sophie discovered her eye sight was much improved too now she was young again. The flowers never looked so beautiful and the shop looked so clean-cut and fashionable. It was more fahsionable than the hate shop had even been. But then Sophie was annoyed with hats. She loved the flowers.

She spent several minutes sorting out the flowers. She arranged them all in the window and around the shelves so each colour matched the one next to it. She put the blues with the purples and creams flowers, the pinks with the whites, and the reds with the rich, new dark red-almost-brown flower with a huge yellow middle. Sophie's personal favourite flower was the peony, and she placed a set of pink and white ones on the counter, where she stood from to admire her work. As an old woman she never had the time to do this and she'd been longing to do it ever since they opened the shop. After setting up the most beautiful display, finally she decided to open the shop. When she opened the curtains to put on the 'open' sign she saw that there was a large waiting outside. They were all longing to see her. There was no doubt that either Fanny or Martha had told people at the bakery that Sophie was working for Wizard Howl, and that they kept the flower shop that used to be the old hat shop.

Now people were longing to see Sophie.

Sophie quickly shut the curtain again and thought for a moment. She felt a bit down on herself and looked down at her dress. It was still that awful, the ugly grey dress that was too big for her, that was stained, that was only suitable for a homeless person living in the lowest section of Porthaven. Becoming old had lowered her weight but the dress had always been a size too big anyway. She felt a little guilty for being so vain about it and worried that Howl was having a bad influence on her. But then, customers would no doubt prefer to see someone dressed properly rather than someone looking half starved and dressed in rags that Cinderella wouldn't be caught dead in. Besides, she worried that people would start to blame Howl, and it wasn't his fault. With that thought in mind, Sophie felt motivated to quickly go back to the castle and change into her new dress.

Climbing through the broom cupboard, she was glad to see that there were no males or demons. If Howl were to come in and see this dress on me no doubt he'd find something wrong, Sophie thought as she picked up the dress and closed the door. Creeping in she made double check to make sure Howl was not in the bathroom and that Calcifer was not under the logs in the grate. As she began to disrobe she stopped with a sudden thought, which made her blush. There is a chance Howl will catch her in the changing act! she thought worriedly. Thankfully though no doubt walked in and Sophie quickly brushed her hair as she walked back into the shop. She was tempted to go into the bathroom and look at herself in the big mirror, but there was no time. Feeling much more confident, Sophie strode to the shop door, opened the blinds and smiled at the on-lookers as she put up the 'open' sign.

At the normal time the shop opened and not Aunt Jenkins, but Sophie Hatter looking beautiful as she greeted the first customers. When they asked what had happened to Aunt Jenkins, she just said simply, "She's gone to travel the world. She wanted to see a bit more of it before she died." These were Sophie's feelings, and unlike her former alias of 'Aunt Jenkins', Sophie Hatter had plenty of time to see a bit more of the world, thank goodness. At first it was just women who used to buy hats from the hat shop frequently and knew Sophie fairly well that came to give their greetings. They said she looked marvellous in her new red wine coloured dress and had never looked better. Many of the old ladies took one look at her and almost broke into tears. 'Like old times', they said, cupping her face. Before her life as an old woman she would not have been as considerate of them. Now all she could think about was offering them some help was they made their way to the door. For the first time in a long time Sophie felt good, and happy that everyone she had known could visit her again and know who she was.

Once the old ladies left they told their daughters who told their sons and daughters, so rushed to have a look. It was soon all over Market Chipping that Mr. Hatter's eldest daughter has returned to her roots and was working in Jenkins' flower shop. Sophie was amazed at how many of old family friends came by, like the old hat workers. Even Bessie, who had once been the one remaining shop assistant, came to see her though she didn't seem too thrilled to see Sophie looking to well. She'd always seen Sophie as the plain looking daughter of the Hatter family, who, by all means should stay in the background. Sophie didn't blame her as Bessie only remembered her in that awful grey dress. It's not surprising that she was shocked to see Sophie looking almost as beautiful as Lettie, and as cheerful as Martha. As for the old workers, they really were old, very old. Old enough to remember when Sophie's father was born.

One who came to see her was a very old man, who had known Sophie since birth. He couldn't even stand up straight any more, his back was curled over like most did in old age. Sophie was sure her own had done that although it was not as bad as his seemed to be. It may have come from sitting over those hats all day, putting them together and making the wax moulds. When he saw Sophie he could barely contain a smile, telling her he had never seen her look so pretty in his life.

"You look just like your mother," he commented with a chuckle. As strange as it would seem to most people, Sophie had to think about who be was talking about before she could answer. It was only natural as she had only ever known Fanny, and considered her as the only mother she knew of. It was only when the worker said, " It was always the way. Your sister looked like Thomas, and you always looked like Annette."

Annette. It was then that Sophie remembered that Annette had been hers and Lettie's mother's name. Annette, better known as Anne or Pretty Annie. Since she had died before either of them could remember neither Sophie or Lettie could even remember what she looked like. There were never any pictures of her around for the girls to see either. Neither of them had dared to ask their father why not but Fanny said that seeing her face brought it all back and that they were all he needed to remember him by. But all the older workers had known their mother ever since she was a girl. Sophie did at least know that her mother and father had played together as children, teasing the workers who back then were young men. A story that Sophie also knew of was that when Anne was fifteen and their father, Thomas, was twenty he just inherited the hat shop. He told Anne then that he would marry her one day, and then he did four years later.

Sophie wished she could remember her mother. It never really bothered her when she was a child that her mother had died so young. After all, Fanny had been very kind to her as a girl, so Sophie never really thought about her mother after Fanny explained to her about the photographs. That didn't really bother her either. It was only recently that Sophie thought about death. That moment when she thought she might die that day the scarecrow tried to get in the house all she could think about was people that had died. Her father and mother were the first people who came into her head. Sophie was scared she too would die young that moment. Die young looking old.

"Oh, happy days!" the old man sighed, once he had talked for what seemed like forever. This might have bothered Sophie before but now, no, she was very happy to listen; admittedly she was only half listening. "Yes, I remember the night of your birth. We were just as excited as your parents. You were such a pretty baby, pretty Sophie. Not like your father; he was very ugly!"

The two laughed; as he spoke, Sophie found the power of multi-tasking handy, finding that while she served customers, she could speak with the old man at the same time. "You were always your father's favourite, I believe. It was because you were so intelligent. Anne and Tom always believed that you would really make something of yourself. I mean, we always thought you'd turn out like your mother and from what I hear, you even have that power…" he then looked at the clock on the wall starting to chime on the hour. He chuckled, deciding to end his story, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from talking with all these lovely people aren't I? I better go now. I might pop by tomorrow."

Sophie smiled as the old man hobbled away. He had been hobbling for years, Sophie remembered, and it was only now she finally understood how much pain he must go though. She wondered whether there was a spell she could find among Howl's things that she could offer him. Waving goodbye to him, he waved his stick over the large, growing crowd before leaving. Sophie couldn't help smiling. It had been a long time since she had been reminded of her father. It occurred to her that he must be happy that she was still working in the shop that had belonged to her father, and her grandfather, going all the way back to her great-great-great-great-grandfather. Of course it was no longer a hat shop nor did it belong to her. It belonged to Howl.

As well as old women and old workers, their grandchildren who were all around Sophie's age dropped in to see her. Some came in to buy flowers for their sweethearts but couldn't help admiring Sophie and offering her complements. Some of them didn't even come in to buy flowers. They just came to look at her much like people came to see Martha. It was strange as Sophie was not used to complements on her looks and couldn't help how flattered she was. More men came into the flower shop ranging from the poor and the old from the young to the old. Most of them were asking for rose buttons. There was one man who came back twice, making up an excuse for why he had 'lost' is old rose button. As well as asking for rose buttons many of them were also asking her where she had been, telling her how nice it was to see her again, telling her that the display was lovely, and asking her many of questions, which Sophie was happy to answer.

Michael came back not long before lunch time to find he couldn't even enter through the shop door. Looking through the windows he was there were crowds of people huddled around Sophie. Some were buying flowers while others were yelling questions all over the place, jamming into each other, a some banging themselves against the door, forcing Michael to ease his way into the shop. Sophie nearly didn't notice Michael battling his way around the mob. It was so shocking for him he'd worried something back had happened, until he finally did get inside. He realised then that the scene was the same as when male callers came to see Martha. He wondered why for a moment; he was still getting used to the fact that this Sophie had been old Sophie the other day.

Seeing no way passed the screaming mob, he cried out in a scared plea: "Sophie!" Fianlly she saw him and she asked everyone to make room for him. Once he got behind counter he looked at her in wonder, "What's going on Sophie? Whave all these people come to see you?"

It took her a while to answer him as Sophie was talking to Jane, now the Countess of Catterack. Indeed, she had finally agreed to marry the Count, rather than living in sin with him. Jane told Sophie that just as they had met, they had ran off together to elope and only recently returned from the honeymoon. While showing Sophie her wedding ring, she spoke of how grateful she was to Sophie for 'that lovely bonnet' she has bought from the old hat shop.

"You're looking lovely Sophie!" Jane kept saying, her hair all knotted and twisted all around pokers with her a huge, overdressed hat placed in the middle between two May poles of hair. All Sophie could do was smile and say she thought Jane looked lovely too. This was a lie but she could not deny that Jane looked better now then she did before she met the Count of Catterack. Love is a good look for a girl it seems, Sophie said before blushing at her own situation with Howl.

Jane gave her a little hug and pushed her way out followed by two footmen. Finally Sophie turned her attention to Michael, "Yes?" he asked her once again why it was so busy, "Simply because I've been recognised and everyone has come to see me, I suppose. They're certainly buying lots of flowers today either way. Now and get some more flowers, we're running out!" Michael backed off quickly, obeying the barking order, knowing that now she was young again she could chase after him. One good thing was that she couldn't hit him with the stick. Despite everything Sophie felt bad about ordering Michael about, but she couldn't leave the counter with every customer asking her questions…

"Sophie, they say you were kidnapped by the Witch of the Waste, is that true?"

"Sophie, did you know about the reward out for your safe return?"

"Sophie, Sophie! It great to see you. Are you working here now or leaving soon?"

"Is it true that H. jenkins is Wizard Howl?"

"Is it true he eats girls' hearts? You look quite well..."

"You weren't eaten by Wizard Howl. How nice for you!"

In the mist of all these questions Sophie couldn't really hear very well any more. So she didn't notice when a tall, gallent young man walked into the shop. She only noticed when he spoke in a cool, calm voice "Sophie Hatter?"

Sophie looked up at him. She met the eyes of a wonderful looking man. He was a very handsome man in his twenties, a couple of years younger than Howl was. He had wavy black hair and mystical brown eyes that seemed to have a hypnotic power. Sophie was almost tranced by them. Realising she was staring, she finally stood up straight and smiled, but said nothing. She'd never seen him before but he obviously knew her and she felt rude asking him who he was. The man smiled back. "May I just say that that dress is just beautiful on you? It brings out the colour of your eyes and hair," he said pointing at Sophie's loose strawberry-blond hair.

Sophie blushed. She didn't get many complements about her hair. A lot of the complements went towards her two pretty sisters. Though people said that the two daughters (Sophie and Lettie) by Mr. Hatter's first wife where considered the prettiest of the three, people always fell towards the younger two, rather than the prettier two. "Thank you very much, my stepmother gave it to me…" Sophie began to explain.

The man nodded and flashing a charming smile said, "I know". He then leaned on the counter, very close to where Sophie's hands were resting. He offered a friendly smile, which was charming but much different from what Howl's smile was. Howl's smile was deeply seductive that it reduced many girls to warm puddles on the floor. It was one of the reasons why Sophie hated him using his smile on her. Even as an old woman she had been deeply entraced. It was his way of getting her to do what he desired. It had been worse since she became young again. It's been harder to keep back the blushing. It made her feel angry with herself, not Howl, as she thought she'd be even more distressed if Howl didn't smile at her that way and at some other girl.

This young man was different. Sophie thought straight away that this was a geniune kind man as with a smile like that, he had to be friendly. No dishonest person could ever made Sophie feel so relaxed. She was much more relaxed than when Howl smiled at her. That just made her blood rush.

The man stood up straight and smiled even wider, "Let me introduce myself, I'm Alan Smith."

Alan Smith, that was the one from the card! Sophie thought to herself. She couldn't help but smile back, "Mr. Smith's nephew?" she asked. Alan nodded and grinned as he placed his hands on Sophie's and lifted them up. She blushed as he spoke in a very dramatic manner. Well, maybe he's a little bit strange, she admitted to herself as he spoke.

"It so wonderful to finally meet you, Sophie," Alan said smiling in a deeply relaxing way. "Aunt Fanny has told me so much about I feel like I already know you."

Coming back into the shop Michael stopped when he saw the man and decided to stand and watch. For some reason felt a little bad for Howl. He didn't know why but he liked to feel naïve to what's really going on around him. But he wasn't daft; he knew that Howl had developed deep feelings for Sophie, that she was the one he had been looking for all his life. The one person he could love. Michael was worried that if he didn't act soon he might lose her to another man.

He didn't need to be sorry; it turned out Howl could be sorry for himself.

While this was all going on, at that moment, Howl came in through the broom cupboard behind Michael. He got a big slap in the face. The shop was full of customers, mostly male and young and charming, all flirting with Sophie. What made it was was that she was being wooed by a very handsome, charming looking man who like Howl seemed to know how to woo a woman. But unlike Howl, it didn't seem to take much work to get Sophie to fall under his trace. This really annoyed him It was completely out of character for Sophie to look so enchanted with someone. WAtching the scene made Howl feel sick all of a sudden. He didn't feel right. He felt angry, trying to figure out why he felt sick. Something inside his head was thinking, Leave her alone - she's mine!

He marched passed Michael and up behind Sophie to make his presence to Alan known. He tried to stand dominate while listening Alan's remarks. "I couldn't wait to meet you. You're even prettier than yor picture," Alan finished before he finally glanced up, while Sophie just stood gassing into space, still her hands remained in Alan's. Howl just stood there, as if he was waiting for an explanation, which wasn't really needed, Sophie didn't belong to anyone, physically or emotionally, or at least not yet.

Alan let her hands go and held one out to Howl, "You must be Wizard Howl. It is a pleasure to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself; I'm Alan Smith, Sophie's step-step-cousin, if you will."

"I won't," Howl replied though his teeth. "Nice to meet you."

Sophie blushed and turned around to find herself face to face with Howl, and his green eyes. She blinked and stared at them. "Oh, hello Howl. How was your day?"

"How was my day?" Howl snapped. He seemed to be strangely angry. "What a stupid thing to ask! I come home from a boring day, I want to come back to have a sleep, a bit to eat and I find the shop full of strapping young men making so much noise elephants are quieter!"

"Eleph—What are they?" Sophie asked, she'd never heard of them before, "Are they a type of instrument?"

He almost never got angry in a case where he went red in the face. Sophie was used to handling him when he did get angry at her, especially when the anger is mis-directed. She thought he would be happy there were loads of customers. Howl almost went onto explaining about elephants, but realised it had nothing to do with anything. "Oh never mind!" he snapped before stomping off almost knocking Michael off his feet. Sophie quickly moved some more flowers into the vases. She turned back to Alan. He was standing there looking a bit guilty, but still smiling kindly.

"I came at a bad time, didn't I?"

For a second, those words seemed to ring in her ears and _deja vu_ seemed to kick in. As he stood up she noticed that he was completely dressed in black and red, with the only white thing being his shirt. Sophie thought it very strange but it suited him. She explained she should also shut the shop as it was lunchtime, and it wasn't fair to deprive food from Howl or Michael. Alan laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "You're a very good girl, Sophie. The Wizard is very lucky to have such a wonderful woman, working for him."

Sophie smiled again, thanked him, and turned to all the customers. They were all still yelling questions to her. She took a deep breath and tried to shout over them, loud and clear, telling them that she needed to close for lunchtime and that she was very happy they'd all come to see her. Many of them didn't listen and others just didn't want to go at first even when Sophie told them they could come back after lunch. It was then that Sophie and Michael where impressed by Alan, who stood tall, clear and confident. Sophie thought that he should become a politician one day. He'd have no problem being elected by the king to be a minister. Alan told the crowd that they should all go to Market Square and have their own lunch in the new café there where he'd just come from.

"It is Cesari the baker's daughter's shop," he explained. "My uncle's new wife told me about it this morning, for she and my uncle had been there the other day. They have the best coffee around here, they could do with some new customers!" The crowd cheered and decided they would just do that.

And why not? Sophie thought, It's new!

After that they happily and cheerfully all left in a huge crowd, bound for the new café in Market Square. Sophie thought it was a marvellous thing that Alan had done, and hoped they would become very good friends. They were, more or less, family now. Once the crowd departed Alan made sure he was the last to leave. Finally noticing Michael, he gave him a smile and winked at him who returned the smile, and said cheerfully, "Thank you very much, I was scared they'd never leave!"

"It's not a problem, Michael!" he said grinning, now placing his hand on his shoulder. "Dear young Martha never stops talking about you. She thinks the world of you, you know," and he rubbed Michael's head playfully, roughing up his already messy hair.

All Michael could mutter out from under his thoughts of Martha was, "My Martha's name is much prettier then the name 'Lettie' and I was so happy when I heard it. Both our names begin with the same letter too!" Sophie laughed at this. Only Michael could announce love on the bases of something like that. He really was a sweetheart. As he spoke something inside her couldn't wait for the day that he would be her brotherin-law. Michael was a wonderful boy. Sophie already loved him like the brother she never had, and the son she didn't have, nor wanted anytime soon. Before she turned to let Alan out, Michael chirped up again, "Come again soon!"

As he went out the door, Alan fished out a letter from a large pocket and handed it to Sophie, "That is the official invitation from Fanny to you," he explained. Sophie opened it and read it to herself:

_To my dear and darling Sophie,_

_I hope you liked the new dress, I'd love to see you in it and that's why I'm inviting you round to have some tea with us. If you remember, it's Lettie's birthday on the 1st July. Alan, my husband, Annabel, I'm also asking Martha and maybe Lettie's new friend Suliman too._

_Bring the Wizard and that dear boy, who lives with you too,_

_All my love, Fanny_

Sophie looked up as Alan held out another invitation. "I need to take this one to dear, young Martha. I intended to do it myself. However I promised Fanny that I would be back by now to help her with the plans for the party. So, may I ask you to give it too her? I wouldn't ask if I wasn't in such a hurry…"

Sophie took the letter, "Of course, I could use the exercise to stretch my legs. I'll give it too her…" it was then she turned to face Michael, who was standing there trying to get every word of what was being said. "That is if Michael doesn't mind sharing, only I'd love to go and see Martha."

Michael just stood there nodding his head. He didn't mind really, and even if he did, he wouldn't say. Plus, how could he begrudge two sisters time alone? Alan smiled, "Thank you". Then, he did something that surprised Sophie. He got down on one knee, took her hand and kissed it. She almost couldn't believe it. He was a perfect gentlemen. Even Michael had his mouth wide open. Her cheeks turned as red as a volcano that was about to explode. Michael stood with his mouth wide open while even Calcifer witnessed the scene, hovering above Michael's head. And finally, at the top of the stairs looking down on everything was Howl. He looked as if he might explode too, like he was going to blow his top. It was obvious he was trying to hide it by standing proudly and respectively.

Calcifer laughed a little and said, "Not to hot now you have a rival, Howl?"

As Sophie was waving goodbye to Alan, Howl came into the shop behind Michael.

"Did you see that?" Calcifer asked Michael, obviously trying to get at Howl.

"He's really great!" Michael exclaimed spinning around to face them. "He told me that Martha thought the world of me, and he's really polite. He seems to really like Sophie, doesn't he?" It was then Michael saw the look on Howl's face, and shut up.

Howl crossed his arms, "Yes we can see that Michael! But you should know Sophie better. She is not the type for all that charm and hand kissing. She's an awkward girl who would rather dominate her man completely. And from the way her mind works, if she works at it, she can make her man follow her every wish…"

"You'd know wouldn't you?" Calcifer said, starting up again. "I bet you wouldn't even dare to kiss Sophie from fear she'd hit you over the head with a frying pan for making unwanted physical contact with her!"

"She's not like that either…"

"What is she like then?" Michael asked, trying to get involved too.

"I told you, she's one of a kind."

Sophie turned back into the shop. Michael and Calcifer both stood looking at her with surprised looks. Howl on the other hand put on a fake smile, not to hide his feelings but to show Sophie he was really angry.

Seeing Howl made Sophie's heart fall onto the floor with a large thump. "Just seeing Alan off!"

None of them said much after that. Sophie walked them all back into the castle and made them lunch. No one said anything over lunch either. She wasn't sure how to tell Howl about Lettie's birthday party. Both Fanny and Mrs Fairfax had set their hearts on Sophie marrying Howl, so she knew that if she and Howl went together, there was sure to be confusion. Then Sophie remembered that Alan had not said anything or even treated Sophie like she was someone else's girlfriend. He'd even said Howl was lucky to her a worker like her, not a woman like her. In a great amount of relief, Sophie thought that maybe Fanny had told Alan that there wasn't anything there. Sophie could have gone a bit pink then.

Michael turned to Sophie and asked her very innocently, "Why did Alan kiss your hand? Only men who are counting girls get down on one knee and kiss it like that."

"Ha," Howl said childishly. Sophie ignored him but brushed it off. Michael seemed to be talking in a way that he must have thought that Alan 'fancied' her. Although Alan was very charming and handsome, he wasn't someone she'd see as anything but a friend. Of course the other reason why Sophie didn't take that seriously was because her heart was yearning for someone else. Everyone knew who that was. "Nothing is meant by it" Sophie said calmly. "He was just being nice. It was just a peck on the hand."

Michael glanced at Howl next, who was just sitting there. He seemed to be enjoying this story despite the fact that a few seconds ago, he was blowing his top about this Alan. "He was just being polite," Howl repeated, confirming her words. "It's respect for a woman. Any monkey can kiss a girl on the hand…" he then glanced at Sophie. She was just sitting there, getting ready to open her pocket with the invitation.

Sophie decided to tell him about the party. "Howl, Alan came here to give all of us this invitation to my sister Lettie's birthday. Fanny's hosting it at her house. She wants you, Michael and me to come." She looked at Howl's face; it was probably him getting ready to slither out some how. Was he scared of the same thing Sophie was?

But to Sophie surprise, Howl just sat up and said, "Why not? Gives me a chance to get away from normality."

"You mean you don't mind?" she asked. It was clear that Michael really wanted to go so he could see Martha outside the bustle of the baker's shop. Even Calcifer looked as if he wouldn't mind going as well. After all, though there was a lot to see in the country, it could be quite boring out in Market Chipping after the first seven hundred times. "You should come too Calcifer!"

Calcifer grinned a huge orange grin, "I was waiting for you to ask!"

Sophie was surprised. This must have been the first time all four of them agreed on something. And what a great thing to agree upon; an event where everyone would surely have fun. Sophie would be able to be with Lettie on her birthday, Howl would be there too, which for some reason made things better for Sophie. Calcifer would get to go to a party, Michael would get to see Martha. That was when she remembered. She quickly got up with the invitation for Martha.

"Where are you off too?" Howl said turning out of his chair. Michael and Calcifer watched with curious eyes, Howl had been acting very strange since the witch's fall, and he seemed to take his eyes off nothing but Sophie…

"I said I'd give Martha her invitation" Sophie said as she grabbed her old shawl, as she glanced out the window, she saw that it was early evening out in Market Chipping. The sun was shining up the sky to give it lovely red colour, as it stretched towards the distance it turned orange, then purple then back to the dark blue of the evening skies.

Sophie couldn't help but notice how beautiful she remembered Market Chipping was at night, how she'd sit in front of her window when she was younger, after her bath when she was brushing her hair. She'd always watched the town bellow her fall into the silver of moonlight, until she finally saw the lamp man light up the street with fire lamps…

"I'll go if you want…" Michael began, but Howl quickly shook his head mouthing that this wasn't the time.

Sophie turned around to tell Michael it was all right, but she'd rather have a walk outside in the dust sun. When Howl was suddenly right next to her near the door, Sophie gave a jump. She had no idea he could move so fast. "Howl! You scared me!" Sophie said giving him a scowl, "I guess you can slither more ways then out!"

"Your hard words continue to pain me" Howl began, pretending to look hurt. "Your harsh tongue is as sharp as knife. I haven't done anything wrong…" Howl looked Sophie in the face. She was showing a face that told him to stop insulting her and stopped talking poetically just because it sounds more romantic. Howl got to the point, "But nevertheless I'm coming too!"

Sophie felt her heart tug, "Why?" That was all she could mutter.

"Letting you walk out to Market Square alone. It's not safe. There are men out there," Howl pointed out to her, "Men who are not as courtly as myself."

Sophie wanted to laugh at this, Howl had set her bate, and she couldn't resist grabbing it. "If there were a man more vain, more seductive, more cowardly..."

"More handsome…"

"And more courtly than you, I'd probably need you with me to catch me when I faint and have a heart attack from the pure shock!" Sophie exclaimed before turning to go out to the shop. Howl followed after her.

"What I really mean is, there is a lot of riff-raff on the streets. What if one of them attack you!" he said, now sounding a little more serious. It was rather strange for Sophie; he'd never been this clingy to her.

Sophie span around, her hair seemed to follow seconds after with her face as they also swung around. "How is you being with me going to protect me against male-attackers?" she asked, still trying to find out why he was so keen to go with her. "You're a coward!" He just started at her, then finally turned on his smile. Sophie tried to look away but the smile had her right where it wanted her. She couldn't say no now! 'Bother the man!' Sophie thought as she gathered her words. "Okay then… You can come. But I can't shake the feeling that you're up to something…"

* * *


	3. IW: Sophie makes an important discovery

**REMEMBER THIS: Chapter Three and Four have been edited to change my new plan for the story. I hated the way the old ones went, so that will explain why the chapter titles have changed. Please bare in mind that I have my A levels. I do have a plan for this story - I have the plan right in front of me.**

* * *

**Chapter Three: In which Sophie and Lettie make a discovery**

Lettie's birthday party was far from the exciting family get together everyone had hoped for. It was a little boring to be honest. Ever since Fanny moved up in the world her idea of a good party was sitting around drinking tea. It was only really worth going to for Sophie to see her sister, wish her happy birthday, and see the other faces in attendence. The only person who wasn't there when the members of the Moving Castle turned up was Mr. Smith's nephew Alan. Fanny explained to the that that he would be late. Howl couldn't help smiling his forced, polite smile and commented on what a pity he wasn't there. Deep down though inside he wished he hadn't come himself, and Sophie didn't blame him.

The crowd was quite small: Sophie, Howl, Calcifer, Michael, Martha, Lettie, Mrs Fairfax, Suliman, Mr Smith and Fanny, all sitting around a table drinking tea and attempting to make small talk. One thing they had to admit was that Fanny had at least tried with the decorations. Every where there were pink and white banners with 'Happy Birthday' written in stylish lettering. The food was very prettily presented also. Sophie quite liked it but Lettie was not as amazed as her sister. When the butler Sylvester and the servants brought through the birthday cake it had sparklers instead of candles. Everyone sung "Happy Birthday" and Lettie made a wish. If she wished for anything she wished she had not come. It was very boring.

What made matters worse for Lettie was that she imagined Fanny had brought them all around to the house for another reason, other than to wish lettie happy birthday. This was confirmed. As a matter of fact, Fanny had wanted everyone over was a spring clean. She wanted to clear out the attic full of things that she had kept with her from the old hat shop when she remarried. "I thought you girls would like to have a look. You might be able to get more use out of it than I can," she explained to Sophie and Lettie as she led them upstairs towards the attic room. "Martha already came up here and took what she wanted but won't come back up here because of a spider. I mean really, can you believe that?"

"I can imagine," Sophie said as she clutched a broom believing that attic would be nothing compared to what Howl could throw at her. "You get used to spiders over time."

"Spiders?" Lettie said nervously, stroking her beautiful flawless locks in her fingers. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Oh come now dear!" Fanny said in her ligh-hearted way as she found herself at the attic door. Opening it she went ton, "They aren't that big and won't do you any harm." Walking the two sisters into the room they stepped into a stuffy, well-filled loft. It was quite dark and Lettie clearly didn't like that too until Sophie walked in, pulled down a piece of wood covering the window, and let the sun shine in. Dust flared up and danced in the sun light. It made the sisters' eyes water. Fanny pointed all around her, explaining what they saw, "Now there are quite a few different things in here. I believe there are a few family photos with us in, a few things that had belonged to your father, a few things that belonged to either of you in childhood. As I said, Martha was up here briefly but didn't stay very long. I'd like to get all of this organised so I know what to keep and what to throw away. Anyway, have fun, girls! I really should get back to the party…"

Smiling cheerfully she walked out of the room and shut the door, leaving the two sisters alone with just the spiders, the dust and the memories. Neither of them moved for a moment as they both glanced at the sight. Everything was covered in dust, which surprised both girls seeing as Fanny never allowed a speck of dust downstairs, and these boxes couldn't have been here more than a month. The things up here probably didn't matter enough to keep away from the dust any more. Wooden carts and boxes were piled along with cardboard ones, stacked in a leaning tower that threatened to fall over. Some of these things had just been tossed in the room and left there without sorting them out safely. The window Sophie had exposed was a stained window, small and high, shining in multi-coloured light into the room.

"Can you believe this is Fanny's attic?" Sophie said trying to break the silence, leaning on her broom. "I've never seen so much dust!"

"Can you believe this is my birthday?" Lettie said sulkily.

Sophie ignored her, knowing that Lettie was going to have another one of her sulks. To ignore her she walked towards a pile of boxes and smiled back to her sister. Lettie couldn't help but smile back. She walked over to aid Sophie in her work of looking through some of their father's old books. He had been a great fan of books like Sophie was now and collected many over the years.

After a while of sorting Lettie decided to spreak while watching Sophie carefully, "It's so wonderful to see your face again. You must be happy to be young and beautiful again." Sophie said nothing in reply other than smile; she was too entranced by the old memories of her childhood. In the boxes she not only found some of her father's old books but some of hers as well.

After a while they found an old doll that had belonged to her since the age of four. Sophie was amazed; she had believed she lost it one trip to Upper Folding to see Mrs. Fairfax when she was ten. She remembered how she cried and cried, and no one ever knew because she liked to keep her sorrow to herself. There was even an old wooden box, smooth and shiny, painted red with a floral design of gold and silver flowers and in the middle 'S. H' written on it. Both sisters remembered that it used to contain expensive chocolates from a popular chocolate shopp, which had not been far from the old hat shop when they were growing up. Sadly, it had to close down when the old owner died without any children. Every year between the ages of four and thirteen Mr. Hatter would get each of the girls a box each. Sophie used to keep the boxes for her hair pins, jewellery, earings and other things such as pens and quills and ink. Lettie eventually began doing the same thing, using them to keep her many love letters from the boys of the neighbourhood in. This was one of hers as inside there was still some of Sophie's old stationary. On further inspection they found all of the beautifully painted chocolate boxes that Sophie had kept, and Lettie's own box, still containing their things. Both sisters put the small boxes aside, deciding straight away they wanted to keep them. They had only just made their way into the attic; Sophie knew for a far that she had them on her desk in her room before she ran away.

Looking through the boxes cheered Sophie up quickly, making her way through several of the boxes, finding treasure after treasure. It was exciting as it brought back many old memories that she wouldn't have thought of otherwise. As she searched she noticed a large wooden chest, well-crafted at the bottom of the pile. Sophie keenly dug towards it so she might inspect. She was so busy that she barely heard Lettie starting to speak again, "Sometimes I just don't believe Fanny! This is supposed to be my birthday party and she has me digging around old boxes."

"Be fair, Lettie," Sophie said as she brushed away some dust from her face. "She wants us to have a chance to take away our old treasures before she gets rid of all this stuff. You know what Fanny's like, Lettie. She probably wants this place sorted and cleared out so she can clean."

"That's my point," Lettie replied, looking about the room, not really being helpful any more. "It feels like has truly forgotten father."

"Maybe it's better that way," Sophie whispered, pausing for a moment to remember her father's death. She had to admit, she hadn't really thought of her father since his death. She had been so busy with other things, such as the Witch of the Waste and Howl coming into her life. When her father was alive, she always seemed to be his favourite. She was the studious and the hardest working daughter. He had called her 'angel' and 'little mother' because she was so mature in taking care of Lettie and Martha despite being not much older than them. He loved all of his daughters dearly and equally, but Sophie was a child after his heart. "Maybe," Sophie went on, "it's better if we try to forget are past lives and try to look to the--"

Sophie stopped what she was doing.

"What is it?" Lettie looking over to see what had stopped her sister in her words. Sophie had uncovered the old chest at the bottom of the pile, worn out but still showing the faint design it had once fashioned brand new. It was very pretty; a mahogany colour with a floral design with the name 'SOPHIE'. When they saw that they knew what it was.

"Isn't that your old oddments chest?" Lettie asked.

Sophie smiled, quickly dusting it down to open it, "Yes it is! I remember we all had one didn't we? Although I think I was the only one who ever used it. I remember what happened to yours. You never used it so Fanny suggested we paint it and give it away to someone who would use it. You were so many that you..."

"Threw it down the stairs!" Lettie finished, laughing as she did. Lettie always wanted to get her way. She would always make sure that she got her way, no matter what, even if it meant destroying the object in question. Sophie never saw the logic of throwing a chest down the stairs so that no one could have it but you. If Lettie had kept old things that she didn't want inside her chest in the first place, like Sophie had, then maybe nothing would have been thrown down the stairs. "Only you and I had one," Lettie explained. "I knew they were special. If I couldn't have it then no one could!" Sophie laughed and briefly mused on how different the two sisters were, despite looking quite similar. Sophie normally stayed calm and kept her head in dangerous situations, while Lettie would normally break down, panic or faint. Both girls could be very strong-minded, but everyone considered Sophie to be the sensible one. After what had happened to her, they now all thought she was the strongest too.

Looking inside Sophie's old oddments box there were several smaller boxes that had once contained jewellery and shoes. Fanny had obviously been in here first and tried to sort some things out. Lettie picked one out one of the smaller boxes to look inside. She found herself holding a handful of black and white, faded photographs of her and her sisters. There were many other boxes, but underneath, there were Sophie's old oddments. Amazingly she found her old diary, a beautiful green book with a special lock on it that only she could open, and pieces of paper with old poems she had written during her school days. One story in particular was what one would call a "fairytale" about a princess trapped in a tower with long red hair. She had written that when all the girls at school had teased her about her hair, and writing these stories made her feel better

Lettie sighed, "Only Fanny could carelessly stuff things into someone else box to clear up clutter."

"Lettie, that's enough!" Sophie snapped. "You're becoming worse than Martha when it comes to Fanny! You knowshe's a good woman who has been kind all our lives. She brought us up despite the fact you and I weren't her children!" That was a good woman in this day and age; most stepmothers were not only thought to but expected to make their stepdaughters feel worthless and useless. But Fanny was very kind and treated them with equal kindness to Martha. Or at least that was how Sophie saw it. "Fanny is the only mother we have ever known, and that should command some respect from you."

Lettie rolled her eyes, "Oh, goodness me Sophie. If anyone has played mother to Martha and I, it's you!" Lettie opened another box, finding more photographs. "Fanny's nice and I do love her, but if anyone brought us up it was you. You were always the one who looked after us despite the fact you were just a girl too. You even cooked us dinner a couple of times once you were six. The only reason you didn't start before was because you were too small to reach the stove."

Sophie didn't want to argue with Lettie. It was true that due to Fanny being busy in the shop she had taken it upon herself to look after and raise the other two. If anything she was grateful that Lettie recognised the hard work she put into everything, and smiled, "Thank you and I'm glad you think so. You must understand though that I never had anyone else to look up to. It's only natural I'd try to defend Fanny because she'd the only person I have. She is the closest thing to a mother I have." Lettie understood and nodded.

They went on looking through the objects in silences. While Sophie went through other boxes, Lettie looked at the pictures. They were all of the family, and some of the workers. Some of them and their father, them and Fanny or all of them together. She picked up a very dusty and dirty box that in its time would have been very pretty but the years it had been kept in two different attics had destroyed it. She opened it and stopped dead, her lovely blue eyes starred at the photo. She glanced over at Sophie who was holding an old book, and brushing off the dust.

"Sophie, look at this!"

"What is it?" Sophie replied without turning. Lettie rushed over quickly, falling down to her knees next to Sophie in a great gust of dust. Sophie's eyes watered and she sneezed as she looked at what Lettie was handing her. Once her eyes had cleared she saw she was holding a photograph. It was of a woman that she did not recognise at first, although there was something about her that looked familiar. "Who is this?"

"Look at the back," Lettie said quietly, her eyes wide with surprise. Sophie did as Lettie said. Turning the old photograph over, she saw a caption in their late father's writing. She dropped the books she had been holding in shock, and clutched the picture in both hands. She turned it over to look at the face again. It was of a young woman with a warm soft face, smiling slightly and clearly looking more at the camera than at. Lettie confirmed what Sophie thought she was looking it, "It's a picture of mother!"

"I know," Lettie said, placing a hand over her mouth to look at the photograph again. They looked at the caption again, which read: _ANNETTE AGED TWENTY-ONE_. "I always tried to imagine what she looked like but..." she paused and looked at Sophie, "You look a lot like her."

"If you say so," Sophie said, wondering if that was where she saw the likeness - her own reflection.

Lettie tilted her head before taking back the photograph, "I wonder why father always wanted to hide pictures of her away."

"Fanny said it upset him," Sophie reminded her. "She died so suddenly and young that looking at her just brought back bad memories." She then looked at the box where Lettie had found the picture, and then at her sister, "Do you think there are any more photographs or pictures of her?"

Lettie smiled excitedly, "Let's have a look!"

Together the two sisters tore through the rest of the box for anything of their mother. After no success for a while, Sophie suddenly found a box tied up with both string and ribbon. She nearly broke her nails trying to undo all the knots. It was worth the effort as inside was another picture of her mother, with her huge eyes were staring up at her. Sophie picked it up to show Lettie when she saw another one. Under that was another, and another. The entire box was filled with pictures of their mother, captions and all.

Lettie stared in awe at her mother, "Oh, she was so beautiful! How could we forget her?"

"We were so young, Lettie," Sophie said slowly, also amazed at seeing her mother's face for the first time in sixteen years.

"Yes," Lettie said taking the pictures to have another look at them. "At least we can see them now. What angers me is that Fanny always told us there were no photographs of mother!" That was when she shood quickly in a huff of anger. The pictures of Annette fell off her lap as she stood. "I'm going to march right now there and ask her why she and father lied!"

"Oh, Lettie..." Sophie said, Lettie's stubborness starting to get on her nerves.

"No, we are doing this. Is there anything else in that box?"

Sophie sighed and looked at the last box, a large shoe box, which they had been looking through. Lettie was already stuffing things into the large oddments shelf, including the old chocolate boxes and Sophie's doll. She barely got a chance to see if there was anything else more valuable and Lettie snatched it all up into the box. Together, the pair made their way back to the party.

Howl wished he could have gone and hidden in the attic. He'd rather be stuck in the same room with darling Sophie, beloved spiders and shrewish Lettie then down where he was. He had found himself was stuck listening to not-so interesting story of Mr Smith's nephew's intelligence. Apparently he had been a cracker at school, good at everything, a natural genius. It annoyed Howl not because Alan sounded better but because people used to say the same thing about him. As Mr Smith spoke, Howl looked out the window to watch everyone else outside enjoying the afternoon. The wonderful Alan Smith came striding up the drive and the angels might have starting singing. Everyone rushed up to greet him, Michael and Martha being first in line. There they were out there having fun while he was stuck inside. Howl even envied Calcifer who was flying about the garden without a care in the world.

"His father, my brother was a bit of a fool. It's how he lived and how he died. I brought that boy up myself, and look how well he has turned out!" Mr Smith said, smiling gleefully.

"The image of you, dear," Fanny said topping off his drink again.

Howl looked as if he would rather be anywhere else and Ben Suliman looked as if he was asleep, probably because he _was_ asleep. He then wondered where the new object of his desire was, Sophie. He felt bored without her around him and felt and hoped that she'd soon turn up and save the day. Suddenly, Howl was yanked back into reality by Fanny's sudden change of talk. She dismissed Ben first, who was more than happy to go outside as he was instantly greeted by Mrs Fairfax, as Howl viewed out the window. "Wizard Howl" Fanny said formally, "What are you intentions?"

Howl blinked, trying to focus, "My what?"

"Your intentions," Fanny repeated.

"On what?"

"On my stepdaughter," Fanny said.

Howl coughed awkwardly, "Excuse me?"

Fanny rolled her eyes, "What do you intend to do with her?"

"What do you mean _do_?" Howl asked. Confused on how his intentions had anything to do with perfect Alan becoming being a genius and so wonderful. He was still in conversation with the elder Smith for all he knew. Howl made it look as if he'd just understood, "Oh I see, what do I plan to _do_ with her in the castle?" he stopped, thinking about what he had just said, before he went on. "I thought she could become my pupil."

"Like Martha's beau?"

"Well, sort of…" Howl explained, thinking of the other thing he intended to do with her. "I'm sure you're aware by now, Mrs Smith that Sophie has a very special magical talent."

"Pardon?" Fanny said, smiling in a way that didn't show shock but in an idea to prove that the idea that Sophie had a magical talent was silly. Where had she been all this time? It then seemed to dawn on her: "Oh, you mean with the hats? She has a nice talent there."

Mr Smith laughed, "Sophie's talents lie in sowing, stitching, cooking and cleaning. She'll make a nice little wife. Lettie has some magical talent, I believe, as Mrs Fairfax says she's quite talented, but Sophie is talented at the domestic life and that's what she enjoys."

Howl didn't know what to say. Never in his life had two people so fully aware magic deny it so quickly and then try to convince him that she was only good as a housewife. Well, Mr. Smith did but that was because he didn't really know Sophie. Howl knew that Fanny adored Sophie, but didn't think that she was allowed talent other than that of a Cinderella. The fairytale laws of this world were even lost on him today, and he was still stuck on the modern ways of viewing women he had grown up with during the sixties at home.

"What I meant," Fanny said, trying to get a straight answer this time, " is are you planning on marrying Sophie?"

"Wha--?" Howl gasped.

"Are you planning to marry Sophie? Because if you aren't I'll have to find someone else to marry her to," Fanny said in a rather over-dramatic way. "And she'll have to move out of that hidious castle of yours because people will start to talk soon.

Howl didn't understand, "But she's on eighteen. Plenty of time to get married and have kids."

"I was nineteen when I married her father and in my twenties when I gave birth to her sister. Sophie needs to marry someone soon, or at the very least, become engaged. From the looks of things Lettie may be making a partnership with Wizard Suliman, and I have consented to Martha becoming betrothed to your gofer. I will not object to you training her in her special power, but I need to know whether or not you intend to become engaged soon so I know whether or not to look else where."

Howl didn't like this at all. Fanny was intending on taking Sophie away from the castle if he didn't come out with an engagement. Trouble was that apart from the _happily ever after_ Howl had not even had the chance to ask Sophie whether she would consider marrying him. He was about to explain this to Fanny when a large chest came crashing down the stairs and landed in the hallway with a large bang of noice. He looked around in shock. It was followed by a few boxes carelessly thrown down, and finally by Sophie and Lettie were rushing downstairs holding a moth-eaten, dusty box between them.

"Find anything girls?" Fanny's husband called out, holding his glass high as if in toast.

Lettie rushed towards Fanny with a scowl on her face leaving Sophie to drag the ugly box alone. Howl quickly stood up to aid her. Together they both brought the box to the coffee table and placed it on top. Fanny's face looked in disgust at the box but looked up at Lettie wondering what was wrong. "Lettie, darling lamb, what on earth is wrong, and why have you put that awful chest on my coffee table? I'm worried it will give it woodworm!

"You lied to us," lettie said, pulling a sulky face looking as if she was going to cry. "You and father said there were no photos of our mother."

Sophie rolled her eyes and dusted off the top of the box trying to see its design. Howl took out a hankie and offered it to her. There were so many layers that it rose up, building up in their faces and caused a few coughs. He was was horrified when she started to use it on the chest, but he didn't dare say anything. If Lettie was in a bad mood then Sophie might explode if prodded the wrong way.

Fanny felt awkward being put on the spot but everyone was looking at her. Clearing her throat, she began to speak: "Your father didn't want you to see her and get upset. He didn't want to get upset, so he said there were no pictures."

"And so did you!" Lettie snapped.

Pausing for a moment, she took out the pictures that they had found. Fanny seemed taken aback. It had been a long time since she had seen Annette's face. She had forgotten just how much Sophie looked like her. It was a beautiful face. She had been such a kind woman too, even if she was a little strange. She died far too early, not even near thirty, and to die in that way was just awful. All she could manage to say was, "It's been a long time since I've seen that face."

Howl tilted his head to look at some of the other pictures. Picking one up he looked at the face closely, "This is your mother?"

"Yes," replied Sophie.

"Hmmm," he said, still looking at the picture. "Sorry, just looks familiar."

"That's probably because Sophie takes after her," Fanny said, trying to gain control of the situation.

Howl nodded, putting down the picture, "Yes, probably." He looked at Sophie, "You do look alike."

"Indeed you do, Sophie," said a new voice from behind them. Howl nearly jumped out of his skin. Looking over his shoulder was Alan Smith. He took the photograph from Howl and looked closely at it, "You're the spitting image of her!" Behind Alan were the other guests, all except Calcifer, who was still out in the garden.

Martha took hold of one of the photographs, sharing its view with Michael, "Who are these of?"

"She looks like Sophie," Michael said with a merry voice.

"It does look like Sophie," Suliman said, taking the picture Lettie was holding to look at it. "A relative of yours?"

Mrs Fairfax took the picture from Martha and Michael, looked at it and smiled. No one dared to hold a breath, as once Mrs Fairfax started talking there was no stopping her. "I'd know that pretty face anywhere. That is Thomas Hatter's first wife, before he married dear Fanny. I've forgotten her name…"

"Annette," Fanny said looking at what Sophie and Howl had uncover on the second box. Just as the first one had Sophie's name on it, this one had 'ANNE' on it. Howl scowled at it, something was still nagging at his brain but he wasn't sure what. Alan watched him out of the corner of his eye before looking to his aunt, who went on talking. "Annette used to be good at art; she'd buy these new chests and painted them. She made one for both her daughters, and one for herself."

"Why didn't you tell us about this after father died?" Sophie asked, now starting to get annoyed herself. This was not the birthday Lettie had planned. Inside the box that she had no time to inspect before were several books and dried up herbs that were long since out of date. Howl jumped in to have a look, more interested in the entire thing than Sophie was. "You really should have told us, Fanny."

"It was your father's idea!" Fanny exclaimed, looking as if she wanted to cry. "He didn't want either of you getting upset over your mother so he said there were no pictures. I thought there were no pictures. He told me he had burnt them, so that it wouldn't break your hearts. I thought we should say something but you know what he was like to argue with!"

"This Annette," said Howl, not looking up from one of Annette's books, "She wasn't just a little housewife, was she?" Sophie looked over his shoulder to see what he was reading. She recognised those scribbles anywhere, and Howl could tell she could tell. "Annette was a witch, wasn't she? These books are old witches books. I might add that they are anicent book that one certainly couldn't find in the library." He then leant over to show Suliman, "I'm sure you'll agree that this is is an ancient alphabet of an ancient language. I'm afraid I don't speak it but we should be able to translate it. What do you think Suliman?"

Ben Suliman lowered his craggy face over the book, "This is indeed the native writing and tongue of this world, this country. Translation is seriously going to be a difficult task." He turned the page and scowled, "That's odd," he said turning between the last page and the previous, "Only that bit is in the ancient language; the rest of it is just about readable. It dates back to this worlds 13th century and is quite readable. It's just this bit..."

Howl took the book back and looked puzzled, "Hmmm, you're right. There must be a reason while this piece is unreadable. It makes you wonder what this book is trying to hide," he also noticed there were several other pieces of paper from a even later period, their period, tucked between the pages. "She used this spell book like a shadow book."

"A shadow book," Sophie said, knowing the term, "that's a personal spell book and diary, isn't it?"

"Yes," Lettie replied. "Not all witches use them. I don't, but some do. Obviously mother did. I just wonder what she was doing with an ancient spell book."

Sophie nodded and looked to Howl, "Is that ancient writing part of the book or just stuck in?"

"It's part of the book," he explained. "That's what makes it all so strange. Everyone have a look at the other spells, the readable old one. It may take a while to come to you because it's old but look at it and tell me what you think it is."

Everyone leaned over the old stained book to see the spell Howl was pointing to. Fanny, naturally, didn't have and clue and neither did Martha. But Lettie, Mrs Fairfax, Michael and Sophie all did. They all spoke at the same time. "Isn't that a levitation spell?" said Sophie. "She's right," Michael said, looking at everyone else for confirmation. "I'd recognise that old star any day!" both Mrs Fairfax and Lettie said together in chorus. It didn't occur to them to see what Alan thought. He just stood in silence.

"Indeed," Howl said, behind him Suliman giving an impressed nod. Howl looked at Sophie, "I'm surprised you identified it so easily, Miss Nose. You were snooping around my spell again, weren't you?"

Sophie scowled, "I was organising things Howl, and even if I did look at them doesn't mean I understood. Your scribbles over them are disgraceful. Almost as disgraceful as the fact we don't know what that _other_ bit in the book says."

Howl had to agree and took back the book to have a look at it. He sighed and shook his head, "It's a pity because it would take ages to translate this and even longer to find a book that would have the alphabet in it. No one reads or speaks or writes this anymore, so no one can understand it. The only one I remember who could read and write this fluently, was Mrs Penstemmon."

"It's too bad we can't ask her," Michael said. "I remember coming across this alphabet a while ago, but I don't think I could translate it…"

"You came across it?" Sophie said looking straight at him, "When was this?"

"I can't remember," Michael said sheepily. "Sorry."

As everyone went on pondering over the strange book of unknown. For someone who was the greatest wizard in Ingary, Howl seemed to know very little of this strange type of magic. Not only him but Michael, Suliman, Lettie and Mrs Fairfax certainly didn't have a clue what any of it was about. Sophie could tell that now Howl was hooked and determined to find out what it was. He pick up the book to look at it himself and said, "Well, if Michael has seen it somewhere then there must be a book somewhere with the alphabet then we could translate it. I'll have to look into this."

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	4. IW: There is a story and a tiger appears

**Yes, the story is finally back on track. Understand that I have been doing my GCSEs and am now doing my A levels. There will be times when I just can't get on the computer to post. At the moment I'm free as I've just started my coursework. I have made a clear plan of everything that will be happening in the story. I'm finding the chapters easy to write at the moment so they might comes fairly soon. Bare in mind long chapters equals more time - and I hate short chapters that don't do anything. That's why I got rid of the old chapters and re-did them. I changed what I was doing with the story. Same timeline and theme - just with a bit more to it.**

**I don't own Howl's Moving Castle and never will.**

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**Chapter Four: In which ****Calcifer tells a story and a tiger appears**

That evening Howl, Sophie and Michael spent it looking over the contents of the book. Sophie looked at some of the pieces of paper inside, which Michael looked at the spells, and Howl wrote down the strange writing and looked through some of his own old language books, trying to find a match. If Michael had seen it before there surely it would be in one of them. Calcifer just watched curiously. He had missed all the excitement floating around the garden, and had only just found out where the book came from in the first place.

"Hasn't it occurred to you," he said once it got to eleven o'clock at night, "that you might have thrown this alphabet on me because you thought it was useless."

"You better not have burnt it," Howl said angrily, glaring at Calcifer. "Sometimes I do feel like throwing a bucket of water all over you."

"Yes," the fire demon hissed. "The only reason you didn't do it before was because you'd kill yourself if you did. Besides, it's not my fault if it's burnt, if it is it was because you did it, not me. I couldn't reach far out of the grate this time last week."

Howl groaned and motioned him over, "Well, whether you've burnt it or not you better come and have a look." Calcifer floated out of the grate and looked at the copy Howl had. Howl glanced at him carefully, "Just don't get any sparks on my suite or my hair."

"Or the book," Sophie said, not looking up from her work. She found the other pieces of paper easy to understand because they were written in a language not very different from her own. Some of them didn't even look like spells. They looked like poems. She was careful with them as she remembered the Witch of the Waste had managed to curse Howl with a poem. She was careful not to read them out loud.

Calcifer fizzed again and spoke, "I know this language but I cannot tell you what it says. This language goes back to the beginning when people first settled here in Ingary. I remember the night I first saw them. They spoke with a language and alphabet as we have now but created this language for their spells and to keep secrets. Normally they would turn words into this writing to hide something or make it unreadable to normal people."

Michael looked up sleepily after Calcifer finished, "You remember when the first people settled in Ingary?"

"I remember when the first people settled in this world," he replied proudly. "You must remember that I have lived for millions of years. I remember when the most intelligent forms in the world were the nymphs and the djinns."

"That must have been interesting," Sophie said looking up at him. She remembered that day she had called him young and he had told her that he was much older than her spell or no spell. "You must have seen an awful lot."

"Not as much as you'd think," Calcifer admittedly, "I was very high up you see. Yet, I recall the first settlers and they seemed to grow and grow in a matter on minutes, even though it took hundreds of years. Before I knew it I fell and was about to die on that earth when Howl caught me."

Sophie glanced at Howl who was deeply engrossed with the translation books. She motioned Calcifer over, which he did. Michael leaned over to listen too. "I've always wondered," she said, "how did that come about? What happened? Did he purposely go out there to catch a falling star?"

Calcifer crackled and shook his long blue face, "No, not exactly. It happened five years ago when he was twenty-two and still new to these parts. He was out on the Porthaven Marshes watching the stars fall. It was November, which was a time a lot of stars burnt out and died, and that year was my turn. I fell off my place in the sky and fell so quickly that I actually ended up in the palm of his hands. He must have seen me falling towards him and got out his hands in time. Or maybe he didn't and he was checking for rain, it did rain not long after that."

"So, Howl just got a lucky catch?" Sophie asked.

"It must have been," he replied with another crack and snap, "He had never tried to catch one before, and he was sitting down at the time reading so it's not like he chasing me. Then again, there were some seven-league boots sitting near by. Sometimes I think maybe he was chasing me, and just fell down in his speed. That was when I fell into his hands, just by chance. I was trapped in the darkness of his hand, close to going out, when he looked down at me. I looked up at him and said without thinking: 'I don't want to die!' he asked me, 'Is that what happens to you, once you fall from the sky?' and I nodded and begged him to help me. He obviously felt sorry for me and asked if he could help me. I then told him the only way he could help me was if he gave me heart…"

He looked at Sophie and Michael who had both been listening carefully. They too remembered how they used to watch falling stars as children, and recalled that day they watched one die, trying to get away from taking Michael's heart. Yet, Calcifer could tell that Sophie was curious about why it had to be the heart. Calcifer went on, "You see demons don't have hearts. Only animals and humans have hearts, and a human heart is a very valuable thing. A fire demon can live for millions of years and have amazing powers. Humans are weakened in the fact they are just flesh and blood, but their hearts can keep demons alive, and keep them alive more much longer."

It did answer a few questions Sophie had been asking herself, and she longed to hear the rest of Calcifer's first encounter with Howl. "Well, he didn't care about any of that. He has a very soft heart, you see, and he had already started to feel sorry for me. So, he agreed to give me his heart so that I might live. He swallowed me and I emerged from his chest with his heart, still beating."

That almost unnerved Sophie; the thought of Howl standing there holding his own heart in his hand. Yet, if she had been in the same place she wondered if she would have done the same. She imagined so as watching that star dying had quite upset her. It also made a lot of sense of why Howl had given his heart to Calcifer. Howl liked to slither out of things, but he was actually a kind and good-natured man, when it came down to it. It seemed very like Howl to sign a contract and only read the small print later on.

"And he took you home after that?" Sophie asked.

"Yes, just them it started to rain," he explained. "He kept me dry by placing his coat over me. He took me back to his home in Porthaven, put some logs on and placed me in the hearth. It was then I told him that now I could never leave the hearth unless he took me out. If anyone were to drop me or if I were to go out, both of us might die. Well, that terrified him and he threw several more logs on me. 'I don't want to die!' he said, explaining his actions. He put some more logs near by, and told me not to burn them all at once. The rest was history. He actually got used to it and whenever he wanted peace he spread the rumour that he had devils living in his house. Of course the devil was me. A year or so later Michael moved in. A year or so after that we created the moving castle. And a year or so after that you came here, and now here we are."

Sophie nodded and thought about where she was five years ago when this was all happened. She would have been thirteen-years-old, living in the hat shop, cooking dinner for her sisters while her father went over the accounts, Fanny worked the customers, and her sister fought over who would get to marry the prince. What would she have thought if she knew somewhere out there was Wizard Howl, catching a falling star?

She looked at Michael to see that he was falling asleep. Howl came out of his own daydream and gave Michael a snap pat on the back. He sat up quickly and looked at Howl. "I'm sorry about that Howl."

"Go to bed, Michael," he ordered, looking back to the translation books. "You're no good to me with one-eye open."

Michael pulled himself out of his chair, bid Sophie goodnight and dragged himself upstairs to his room. She listened as he shut the door to his room and collapse into his bed, no doubt falling straight away to asleep. Sophie rubbed her own eyes, not feeling tired but overworked. She put the papers down and stretched, groaning as she did, happy to strength her muscles after so long. Howl looked up at her. He threw the book down and also groaned.

"I can't find that book," Howl said in annoyance. "If Michael has seen it, it wasn't in one of my books."

"Maybe Calcifer did burn it," Sophie suggested.

"Oh yes," said the fire demon, also falling asleep in the hearth, "blame the fire demon."

"Why not," Howl said turning to Calcifer, resuming their argument, "it normally is his fault, isn't Calcifer?"

Calcifer fizzled, sizzled and cracked at this, replying sleepily, "Because he can't blame anyone else for his faults he decides 'It's all Calcifer's fault'!"

"Or mine," Sophie said, deciding to back Calcifer up on this. Even if it was burnt it wasn't really Calcifer's fault.

"That's because you both do things wrong and someone has to tell you," Howl replied, feeling ganged up on. "Your nosey nose gets everywhere, Miss Nose, and very often gets stuck in places it best left alone. Like that Mr Perfect Alan Smith. He's been sniffing around looking suspicious. Everyday between when we first met him and Lettie's party he'd been here 'paying his respects' and asking questions. I can't stand snoopy people. Why can't you tell your 'friends' to keep their long noses out of my business?"

"It's not a club, Howl," Sophie retorted, not really feeling like a fight so late but ready to give one if he demanded. "It's not like I see them at the meetings."

"You once asked why I created this castle, didn't you," Howl asked her. "Well, it was because of snooping people unable to keep their long noses out of my life."

Sophie rolled her eyes, "Well, on behalf of myself and all the nosey parkers in the country and the world, forgive us. I had no idea my presence bothered you."

Howl shook his head, "It doesn't. I just don't like it when too many people snoop about. Like that Alan."

"What have you got against Alan?" Sophie asked curiously. Part of her wondered, maybe hoped, that he was jealous. It would give her some idea of just how much Howl meant _happily ever after_. Did he mean ever, or forever? "He seems like such a nice man, and Mr Smith doesn't seem to mind him. He's his nephew. If there was something wrong with him he would certainly know."

"There's something odd about him," Howl said plainly. "I feel as if there is more to him that what everyone sees, something not good."

"There is something more to you than what people see," Sophie reminded him. "And not all people think that's good either." Howl glared at her. Since he got back his heart he didn't seem nearly as scary to look at. They were a dark green and no longer looking like large glass marbles. They had more feeling and Sophie was not scared by them. Sophie went on, "You should know better than to judge people by what you think is underneath."

Howl didn't want to get angry with her. He hated getting angry and didn't want to get angry with Sophie. On the other hand he liked Sophie when _she_ was angry. She was one of those women who became more beautiful the angrier she became. There was nothing more gorgeous than a woman with a beautiful scowl. In the end, he made a forced smile. "Well, then I'm sure you'll both be very happy together if things don't work out for you here," and he walked towards the bathroom. "I'm going to have a bath and go to bed."

"What do you mean by 'very happy together'?" Sophie said, but Howl ignored her. As he closed the door, Sophie threw the papers down and looked at Calcifer sleeping in the hearth. She had a good mind to throw the book on him and forget about it. But then she remembered what she had forgotten in all the excitement. These belonged to her mother and were probably her last connection to who she was as a person. So, she grabbed the papers, and went out into the place of flowers by the wastes to calm down.

Just near the door she settled down, making sure the ground was hard, and in the light of the castle she began reading them. There were several poems with titles and names next to them. These surely were not spells. One of them was called 'Leisure' by William Henry Davis. Sophie quite liked that one and wanted to say it out loud. But she stopped again, remembering the poem 'Song' and thought for a moment before she spoke.

"Now, Leisure, I'm going to read you and you are not going to curse me," she commanded to the paper. "Understand? Alright then, here we go." And so she read looking briefly at the night around her as she spoke:

_What is this life if, full of care,  
We have no time to stand and stare. _

No time to stand beneath the boughs  
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,  
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,  
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,  
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can  
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,  
We have no time to stand and stare. 

Sophie thought that quite a sad poem and couldn't really see a curse in it. Besides, she thought, this is my mother. Surely she wouldn't leave curses around for anyone to come across and read. Then she remembered that Miss Angorian had been the one to read the poem last time. Howl had not realised at the time the poem was a curse until she said it. This assured Sophie a bit more in reading these poems and she didn't have the power to curse people as the Witch and Miss Angorian did. She read several others: 'Stars' by Emily Bronte, and several other poems by people she had never heard of.

Finally she looked at a poem she had glanced at earlier. It had grabbed her attention at the time because it had drawings all over it. It had the picture of a tiger on it, at night, with the words to the poem to it. 'THE TYGER' it said in block capitals 'BY WILLIAM BLAKE'.

"I'm sure that is supposed to be 'tiger'," Sophie said to the paper, looking it through trying to get the feel of it. She scowled, at it all and said, "What a strange poem. This Mr. Blake thought too much of this tiger of his." She wondered how her mother came by these poems, if she did, and if not how they got into the book. She thought she should ask Howl about them. In the mean time, she cleared her voice and began to read the poem before her:

_Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  
In the forests of the night,  
What immortal hand or eye  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?_

_In what distant deeps or skies  
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he—_

Sophie stopped as she heard a rustling amongst the flowers, and the trees and the grass, which was the warm wind of the wastes. The sound was too strong. She looked up straight away from her reading and stood, trying to see what it was. The rustling seemed to get closer and closer. She was frozen to the spot and peeled her eyes for whatever it was that was coming towards her. It was quite scary having to come face to face with whatever it was. As with most things scary her mind imagined the worst. Nonetheless, she did not call out to it as she knew that was the sort of thing that ended up getting killed. She did, however, prepare herself to scream for Howl if she had to.

Suddenly, the rustling stopped, as abruptly as they had begun. Sophie's heart had been pounding painfully in her chest started to settle down. A week or so ago such a thing would have sent Sophie's heart mad with fear, it would be hurting her inside and she'd wonder if she would die. She clutched where her pounding heart was and thanked it for being so good, and young.

She was just about settled down when she saw it, and her heart went right up again. Despite the fact it was dark the light from the castle shone on the creature, making it all the more terrifying. There, right in front of her, stood a huge tiger. It stood there staring at her, crouched down as if it wanted to pounce on her. Sophie stood staring at it, too terrified to scream. It was as if her reading the poem had brought the creature described to evil life. It had fiery purple eyes, which glowed red in the light of the castle like a normal cat's eyes, and a not an orange coat but a blue one.

Quivering with fear, Sophie turned her head slightly towards the door, unable to take her eyes of the huge beast staring at her. It was as if it had a hold on her. Sophie called inside the castle, croaking a small "Howl?" knowing well that with Howl in the bathroom it was unlikely he'd hear her. She didn't want to turn and run for the door as the chances of her getting there before the tiger were slim. She called again, a little louder, "Howl?"

The tiger then growled, roared, so loud it made the ground between Sophie's feet shake. Or maybe it was just her legs about to give way on her. She closed her eyes tightly, certain the tiger was about of pounce on her, and she let out one last terrified shriek of fear: "HOWL!"

Eyes closed, she waited for the weight, the claws and the blood. She shook and shivered as she waited for merely seconds to come face to face with the blue tiger. But all she did feel didn't come from in front of her but behind her. Howl had come rushing out and clasped her shoulders. "What is heavens name is wrong?"

Sophie dared to open her eyes. He was still wet from being in the bath but Sophie didn't care and buried her face in his chest, and said, still quite scared. "T-t-tiger; there was a tiger! It was big and loud and blue, and it was terrifying!"

"What?" Howl said, not really understand what she meant, "What tiger?"

"A tiger," Sophie cried again. "There was a big, blue, large teethed tiger, right there!" she pointed to where the tiger had been. Turning around, she saw that it was gone, but was still terrified it was out there. "It was right there. I was so scared that I could barely move. Then it growled and—oh, it was horrible!"

Howl looked around, putting an arm around Sophie and looking about to see if there was any evidence of a tiger. "There are no tigers in this part of the country, cariad. I've never seen or heard of one around; no orange, no white, and certainly no blue."

She looked up at him with a scowl, "Don't make fun of me! I was terrified by it!"

Howl laughed, "So you keep saying, and I'm sure you were scared. But I'm saying there are no blue tigers around. Are you sure it wasn't your imagination? Or dreaming, you did see a blue tiger after all."

"No!" she cried quickly before she stopped and remembered the poem. Sheepishly, she picked up the papers she had dropped in her fear and handed the tiger poem to him. "But I was reading this just before I heard it."

Howl looked at the piece of paper, "Where did you get this?"

"From my mother's old book," she explained clutching the other papers. "I found all of these in there. That was what I was looking at earlier. Do you know that they are?"

"Of course I do," he replied looking at the poem called 'The Tyger', "this is a poem by William Blake."

"I understand that but who is William Blake?"

"He was a man who lived in my world, very famous poet."

Sophie's eyes widened, "Your world? Then how did it get here?"

Howl shrugged, "Not sure. It's possible it fell through the portal at some point and your mother found them. It happens sometimes. It would explain why you saw a tiger; you were either seeing things or briefly fell asleep and thought it was real."

"But I saw it, Howl!" Sophie said, as if she was trying to convince herself she hadn't seen things. "I heard it coming towards me."

"Sometimes dreams do that," Howl said, motioning her back into the castle. "You said it growled didn't you? Well I didn't hear it and look," he said pointing to the hearth where Calcifer flickered, sleeping quietly, "Calcifer is still asleep so he didn't hear it, and he would have sensed it and woken up."

Sophie knew he was right, but it had felt so real. Looking at the piece of paper she spoke gravely, "You don't think it's another curse do you?"

Howl laughed, "No, I don't think so unless you want to curse yourself. The only reason the old poem cursed me was because of that fire demon. It activated the curse."

Sophie managed a smile but still couldn't forget that tiger. She tried to find something in the room to distract her from her thoughts of the tiger. Starting to become aware of everything she looked at Howl again, and looked away quickly. She only just realised that all Howl was wearing was a towel. Looking at the wall she spoke quietly, "I think you better put your pyjamas on and go to bed."

Howl was suddenly aware of his state also but laughed, "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. It's just I heard your screams and didn't think I had enough time to…"

"Yes, thank you," Sophie said, still looking at the wall, "Very grateful."

Awkwardly, Howl rushed into the bathroom. Once she heard the door close, Sophie turned around, seeing the poem 'The Tyger' lying on the table. She rushed over and shoved it in between the pages of the old spell book and closed it, as if the tiger might rise from the page and finish the work her scream and Howl's appearance interrupted. Before she finally retired to her cubby hole, she turned the knob from purple down to orange down. It was unlikely a tiger would get away with running down the smart streets of the valley to try and get into the castle.

She rushed to her gap under the stairs, closed her curtains, and got into her nightdress. Hiding under the covers she tried to think of something other than the tiger, or Howl, or the book which contained the poem. Instead, she decided to think about the other poem she had read about not being able to stand and stare. She played it over and over in her head until she was almost asleep.

She jumped out of her sleepy state briefly as Howl left the bathroom and walked upstairs, whistling what sounded like the saucepan song. She listened silently as both his steps and whistling faded away upstairs and into his room. It then stopped. From lack of anything else to do, Sophie laughed. It was better than being scared of an imaginary tiger, and she finally fell asleep.

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	5. IW: Sophie and Howl are engaged

**Sadly I do not own Howl's Moving Castle and never will but there is nothing to say I can't dream and write. I like doing that. New chapters should be coming fairly soon. Some time this week, maybe Sunday, because I have a lot on this week.****  
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**Chapter Five: ****In which Sophie and Howl are engaged**

Sophie woke the next morning to find she was the only one in the castle not awake. Howl, Michael, and Calcifer were all awake and eating breakfast. Peeping out from behind her curtains, she felt embarrassed at having slept late. She quickly got dressed behind her curtain and emerged slowly. Howl saw her and waved, as if she had been away for a long time and just returned, "The creature from the black lagoon has risen."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Sophie asked, walking toward him and leaning on the table. He was boiling eggs on Calcifer while Michael ate his egg and toast. She spoke again, "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I thought after last nights… excitement, you'd need an extra few minutes," Howl replied glancing at her. Underneath the boiling pan Calcifer crackled as if laughing. Sophie glared at both of them. "Oh, and don't worry. I put the nasty poem out of sight so you won't have to look at it again."

"Huh?" Sophie said, feeling herself blush, "What are you talking about?"

"Wasn't that you running around the other night hiding the book away and changing the door knob so your tiger friend couldn't get in?" Howl questioned her, taking the pot off Calcifer and putting them into cups.

"You were snooping!" Sophie snapped, sitting down and folding her arms, trying to give Howl a fierce glare. "I was just making sure that the castle was… secured."

Calcifer flared up and hissed, "I'll try not to take that as an insult!"

"What do you mean by that?" Sophie asked.

"Do you really think I'd let a tiger into the castle?" he replied, stubbornly but also trying not to laugh. No doubt Howl had told him all about her fear of the huge blue tiger running around the edge of the wastes. She knew he was right to be angry and right to think her silly. She started to think maybe it was her imagination and breakfast did cheer her up, especially since she didn't have to do it.

"What time is it?" Sophie asked.

"Half past eight," Howl replied.

Sophie almost spat out the tea she had been drinking, "That's the normal time I get up! How long have the lot of you been up?"

"Just over half an hour," the wizard replied with a charming smile, aiming it at Sophie as if to try and shut her up.

Sophie wasn't biting, "Why are you all up so early? What are you up to?"

"All in good time," Howl conclusively.

He made his way to the bathroom so he could finish getting ready. Once he was in there Sophie imagined it would take at least until ten to find out what was going on. She tried to coax some information out of Michael but it turned out he didn't know either. She sat impatiently at the table for no less than half an hour when Howl came out. It surprised her as this was the fourth say in a row he had spent so little time to groom himself. Sophie dared to hope it was because of her, but didn't saying anything.

"Now," Sophie began, "will you tell us what this is all about."

Howl beamed at them all and Sophie eyed the piece of paper in his hand. It was that unreadable writing again. "Well, my friends, I gathered you here to talk over today's plans. Today I thought we could close the flower shop for the day and go on a little 'school trip' to the Kingsbury library."

Sophie and Michael looked at each other before Sophie decided to put forward her questions. She raised her hand like a school girl, trying to get her own back for him making fun of her about the tiger. "Please sir, why are we going to the library, sir?"

"Very funny, Sophie, I just thought we'd have better luck with this thing if we have a look in the library," he told her, folding up the piece of paper and putting it in his pocket. "We better take the original book too, Michael," he said pointing towards a piece of cloth next to the sink. Underneath was the book with the 'dreaded' tiger poem in it. He turned to Sophie, "There are also a lot of spell books in the second Kingsbury library. It's the second best collection of books ever to exist in this world, the first being…"

"The first Kingsbury library that burnt down thirty years ago," Sophie finished, her arms still folded. "I did go to school and take history, Howl."

Howl looked at her before going on, "I just thought it would be nice to take my two pupils to the library for a little reading around the subject."

Calcifer crackled a cackle while Sophie snorted, "So you finally accept me as your pupil?"

"If it's what you want," Howl replied.

Sophie just went around the subject and went back to Howl's original point, "Isn't the real reason you want Michael and I to come because you two more pairs of hands trying to get that translation?"

"That wounds me, Sophie my dear," Howl said, pulling on a hurt voice. "I just want you to share my curiosity. Surely you, the nosiest woman ever to set-up in my home, would understand my curiosity; isn't that why you entered my castle in the first place?"

"Not exactly," she replied with a smile. "I came in because I wanted somewhere to sleep for the night, and then I thought maybe you could take the spell off me. I stayed because Calcifer asked me to."

"I never asked you to say!" Calcifer interrupted.

"Obliged me, then," Sophie corrected, giving Calcifer a look, "to stay here."

"And why are you still here?" Howl asked, in a more honest and thoughtful voice this time. It was as if he was looking for the same assurance as Sophie. Normally she might have given it but she was too aware of both Michael and Calcifer's hot sticky eyes on her. Howl could see she wasn't going to say anything and decided to change the subject. "Right then, we'll be off in a minute. Michael," he said looking to his apprentice, "Go and put your best suite on, or they won't let you in. Sophie," he looked at her seeing that she was wearing. She was wearing her new red dress which was much more becoming of her, "No, you're alright. So it's just Michael. Hurry, Michael, we want to get there early!"

"Howl, it's a library," Sophie said with a chuckle of laughter. "It's not like there's going to be a massive queue to get in."

"True but there is no time to waste," he stated.

He bellowed up the stairs for Michael to hurry up. It was a little bit unfair since they normally had to sit around waiting for Howl to get ready. Michael came rushing down the stairs wearing his blue over coat he had worn that day they went to see Mrs Pentstemmon and the King. Watching Howl, Sophie could tell he was excited about their outing. He quickly bid goodbye to Calcifer who had decided to catch a couple more winks of sleep before he went out exploring.

Then Sophie thought, and said quickly, "Howl, how are we going to get to the Kingsbury library? We moved house."

"We can walk from the mansion door," he answered opening the door and walking out. The morning was very lovely and the weather was extremely warm as usual for the south of Ingary. There was not a cloud in the sky. Sophie started to wish she had a hat and parasol to keep the heat off, remembering how uncomfortable she had been before. Then she remembered that other than the things from the attic, Fanny had given Sophie some of her old clothes she had left behind when she ran away from home.

"Just one moment!" she said, rushing back into the castle. She sped to her cubby hole to fish through the boxes. Inside one were her old hats and in another an old parasol. Having been the daughter of a fashionable hat maker, Sophie had some of the best hats in Market Chipping. Among her hats there was one which was a reasonable match for her dress. It was a summer hat, coloured the same as her dress with just one bow on it. She quickly put it on and rushed out the door to meet the others, putting up the parasol. The parasol went with anything as it was plain white. "Sorry, we can go now. It's just so hot and I had to have a hat."

"I'm not complaining," Howl said, looking her up and down before motioning everyone to come along.

Sophie walked up along side him while Michael dragged on behind wishing he didn't have to walk so far. Once there was a time they could have just walked out into the streets of Kingsbury. Maybe Howl would consider putting it all back soon, now that the Witch was gone. The trouble was that it meant getting rid of one of the other entrances and everyone would argue about that. Once they were in the street, Sophie jumped when Howl offered his arm to her, wondering what he expected her to do.

"For appearance at least," he said, keeping his arm there as he walked. "Like your stepmother said, people are bound to talk about you so let's make it seem like there is a marriage in the foreseeable future."

Sophie scowled but took the arm nonetheless and threw her parasol over her shoulder so quickly it almost hit Michael in the nose. "All you ever care about is your appearance."

"Only personal appearance," Howl said, leading her along. "I couldn't careless what people thought of my private life. That's why I always sent Michael to spread bad rumours about me. It doesn't bother me if people suspect I'm cohabiting. Everyone back in Wales thinks the worst of me. I just don't think it's fair if you're seen to be my tag along."

Sophie blushed but held her head high and strong, "And pray tell; what will we say if someone asks us who I am to you."

"Say you are my _intended_," Howl said, remembering that Fanny had ordered him to say something about his relationship with Sophie or else she would order her to leave, and find someone else to marry her. Howl had an awful feeling of who would put forward his name for Sophie. There was no way Howl would allow that. So, he was dealing in it in the best way he could. Let the people say it, not him. "They'll leave you alone that way. You better put this on," he said taking off a ring from his little finger and sliding it onto Sophie's third finger, "Just in case they ask."

Sophie couldn't help frowning; it felt as if Howl was taking advantage of her feelings in making her do this. "Why do we have to do this, Howl?"

He leant over smiling, and said cryptically, "You know what I'm like."

She did know what he was like but she couldn't pin-point which part of his personality this clever plan had sprung from. Sophie was still thinking about it when they finally made it out of the valley of mansions and into the main streets of Kingsbury. Everywhere carriages went to and throw, young couples paraded the streets, and whining pageboys followed behind. Looking at herself, she realised that Howl had purposely moulded them to look as if they were just one of the crowd. Michael certainly looked like a whining page boy.

"Now, let's stick together and hope no one recognises us," he said, marching forward and dragging Sophie along with him. "You see there are a lot of snooty people around here who stick their noses into other people's business. In my experience the rich are the worst kind. I have decided that while everyone else can think I'm a monster, people here have to think I'm just an ordinary person."

"You're a Royal Wizard," Sophie said, twirling her parasol above their heads. "The chances of people seeing you as a simple person are nought, and decreased even further by the way you dress."

"This is nothing," Howl said, sorrowfully. "One day I'm going to _have_ to take you to the court. You think seeing the King was bad enough just _wait_ until you see his court." Sophie didn't feel like going to the palace again but pondered on why he said he had to take her. It was another subtle hint, maybe? "Besides," he went on, "I'm only the Royal Wizard because you blackened my name so much the King thought I was the perfect man for the job."

That was true too, Sophie thought guiltily. "You're the one who wanted your name blackened. You should have sent me to praise you instead."

Howl laughed, "Oh, let's not over reach, Sophie dear!" And Sophie couldn't help chuckling herself.

At that moment a crowd of very well-dressed, good-looking girls cruised past waving their parasols and laughing as they went along. Sophie recalled girls such as this from school and decided not to look them in the eye, as if they might tease her about the way she looked. It was moments like that that made her wish she was an old woman once again. She glanced up at Howl expecting that he would be looking at them. But to her surprise she wasn't even looking in the direction they were coming in. His eyes were fixed on some of the houses they were passing, which he was scowling at.

He pointed to it to show Sophie, "Look, now that house was yellow last time I saw it—excuse me," he said briefly as one of the girls brushed against him, and he went on talking, barely noticing, "And it was green three months before that. Now it's blue. The lady who lives there is Madam Rosemary; she's at court, too. She is completely obsessed with the woman who lives on the other side of the street, Madam Violet. If one does something the other will do the same. It's like a beauty contest!"

Sophie nodded, "We used to have someone like that where we lived always wanting to keep up with the fashions; Jane Farrier's mother Augusta Farrier. Fanny never shut-up about her."

Howl chuckled, "It's amusing really quite amusing, isn't it? Everyone has one, even Wales; Megan never shuts-up about that Hilda next door."

As they walked on they found themselves in a busy middle street where all around couples rushed up to other couples, sending their greetings and gossiping. Men accosted groups of girls, and laughed loudly. It looked like a permanent May Day. Sophie imagined Howl had spent many hours just in their square before. Walking through it, Howl hoped he could get through without being noticed. He wanted to get to that library, but he was foolish to think he could get that far without being noticed.

A painted old woman and a stiff old man came towards them. The woman wore a large, overdressed hat with miniature birds, flowers and feathers sticking out of it. It was very ostentatious and Sophie knew she would never make a hat like that. It looked so heavy. The man with her was dressed in a grey coat and wore a stark white wig. The pair was followed by their own page boy who looked more annoyed than Michael. The make-up on the woman's face looked as if it was starting to melt in the heat. It made Sophie's eyes water. She stayed silent as the woman spoke.

"Well, if it isn't Pendragon," said the woman in a rich voice. "It has been a while since we have seen you in the city."

Howl looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else, and Sophie didn't blame him. This woman appeared to be the sort of snooty noble that Howl had been talking about. The look of dread was all over his face but he managed to conceal it very well. He snapped on a smile and nodded his head politely to both the lady and her husband. "Why Madam Rosemary what a pleasure it is to see you."

"And you," the woman replied. "You know there has been a lot of talk about you at court recently. First you disappear, so the king sends out soldiers to find you. We were certain you had done a runner. Then, you send our beloved prince back to us and Wizard Suliman. I must say you are quite remarkable!"

"Well," Howl said, looking awkwardly flattered, "I try my best."

So this is Madam Rosemary, though Sophie with a small smile, I wonder what Madam Violet looks like. Madam Rosemary smiled and nodded her head at Sophie, as if only just acknowledging her. Sophie's eyes were fixed on the bird in her hat before she met the woman's eyes.

"And who is this, dear sir?" she asked with her nose stuck up as she spoke. "Is this another one of your 'lady-friends'?"

Howl acted defensively, "Not at all!" he glanced at Sophie, who disliked being considered 'one of Howl's lady-friends'. His plan was about to go into action. "I am pleased to say that this lady is my… intended. Her name is Sophie."

The woman gasped, "Oh my! How delightful, sir!" and she looked at Sophie, tilting her head as if to find faults, "I remember an old friend of the family had a charge who went on to have a daughter of her own. She was called Sophie. It has always been my favourite name. I thought of naming my own daughter that but we all agreed that Margot suited her better. Oh yes, delightful. Yes, your dear Sophie looks very _bourgeois_, don't you think Harold?"

She looked to the small, stiff man standing next to her. They were like two characters out of pantomime. She was big, round and loud while he only spoke when ordered. He nodded and smiled, "Very charming! I never thought that Wizard Pendragon could be monogamous. He has certainly broken a few years at court. I do hope your good lady here knows what she's getting into."

"I do," Sophie said quietly. "And I'm sure has broken a few hearts. I believe we all know his reputation as a heart-breaker."

"You are very brave," Madam Rosemary said grandly. "I recall when he courted but abandoned Madam Violet's daughter Cynthia. It was a terrible ordeal."

Sophie couldn't help looking up at Howl at that moment. So that was how he knew so much about the rivalry between Rosemary and Violet. Clutching his arm tightly, digging in just enough to make it uncomfortable, she forced a smile and nodded at the woman. "Well, I am not like the other women in the sense that I do not give in too easily, nor do I indulge his poor behaviour."

Howl laughed nervously, "She's a tough one, yes."

"And where are you two off to this merry day," Sir Harold said with a smile. "We are off to the palace to dine with the king and the other courtiers to celebrate the safe return of Prince Justin."

"Yes," Madam Rosemary said, stepping in to have a good brag. "We received a royal invitation written by the king himself. It was quite flattering really. Madam Violet is not going. Apparently her father is not allowing her to socialise at the moment. She recently got out of a spot of trouble, walking alone in the streets without a chaperone. Last night it was."

"We were at a birthday celebration," Howl quickly said, as if he was worried they were accusing him of something. Sophie wanted to laugh but then remembered her own spot of problem last night with the tiger and shivered.

"How delightful," Madam Rosemary replied with a dramatically posh voice. "Yes, well, she said there were several of them. They attacked her in the middle of the street for anyone to notice. Apparently the sprinkled her own with magic dust, pinning her down to the ground while they did, and then ran off. They sent her to Wizard Suliman but he said the powder was no threat to her and sent her home. Now I ask you what sort of respectable people do that to a nineteen-year-old girl. Disgraceful, even if she is Madam Violet's daughter. I dread to think what would have happened if it was my Margot!"

Howl made a sympathetic nod and spoke gravely, "And I also. It is a terrible story; let us be grateful that Madam Cynthia was unharmed. But excuse us only we are going to the library, and wish to get there before it becomes too hot."

"Indeed," the Madam said, "well we should be off. We would hate to keep his majesty waiting or anyone else at court. Good morning to you, Pendragon." And the pair strode off like soldiers to war.

As they left another person came over. This man was younger and around the same age as Howl. Just as charming and no doubt as much a hit with the ladies as Howl was. As he approached them he kept his eyes on Sophie and focused a smile on her, as he cried out; "Howell, you old rascal! When was the last time I saw the likes of you here in the square?"

"It's been a month or so, Joseph," Howl admitted, motioning at the other two. "This is my apprentice, Michael. And this is Sophie."

"Sophie," said Joseph, taking her hand and kissing gently in much the same manner as Alan Smith had. Sophie noticed that Howl didn't react as hostility to this man as he had to Alan. "I am enchanted with this beauty! Where did you get her, Howl? This jewel seems out of reach even for you. This must one of the prettiest young ladies I have come across in a long while."

Howl ignored Joseph and explained to Sophie, "This is Joseph Mercy. His father is the Earl of Lamorak. We've known each other since my student days with Mrs. Pentstemmon."

Sophie managed to smile, "Lovely to meet you."

"Not nearly as lovely as it is to meet you," the young man protested, holding her hand carefully. Sophie was amazed. It gave her a good idea of what Howl was like around women he was trying to court. He was very charming and handsome without being as flamboyant as Howl. But he wasn't modest. She couldn't help noticing that had matching jewels dangling from their right ears. "I cannot believe I never noticed you before. Are you just a visitor to the area, or have you just been hiding away all these years?"

"I come from Market Chipping," Sophie explained. "That's where I met Howl."

"Oh," Joseph said, looking at Howl with a beam and laughing, "So _that's_ where you got her! Very pretty and young too; is there anything going on here that I should know about."

Both Sophie and Howl looked at each other. This time Sophie took control of the situation. It was easy to like to Madam Rosemary but she could tell he was uneasy lying to an old friend who knew him a bit better, "Nothing official."

"Hmmm," said the young man, looking into Sophie's eyes. "Well, I wish you luck, and if this fool jilts you for a lesser woman then come to me and we'll get married."

Michael watched the entire scene with amazement. He was curious to find out more about the attack on that young woman. It all seemed too odd. He dared to speak up, "Have you heard what happened to that lady the other night?"

"Indeed I did!" said Joseph, laughing as if it was funny. "When I first found out my father looked at me as if I had done it. I mean really I don't need to tackle a woman to the ground, and I'm not so desperate that I'd pick up some of old Howell's leftovers. Well, I make an exception for you, young Sophie." He gave her another smile before going on, "Anyway, I hear that she wasn't ravished, or attacked, or robbed. They just knocked her to the ground, gave her a bit of a fight, and ran off after they checked her over with some sort of powder. It is very strange."

"It could have been a lot worse," Michael said quietly.

"Yes, he could have found Margot!" Howl threw in, getting a laugh from Joseph but leaving both Sophie and Michael standing feeling left out. Howl changed the subject, "I suppose you're going to think dinner the king is throwing for Prince Justin, no?"

"Have to," he replied, "the old man promised he would be there. I'm sure all people will be able to talk about Madam Cynthia, so she'll be very happy, won't she?"

Howl nodded, "Well, I best be off. Sophie, Michael and I are off to the library to try and translate something."

"You can always rely on Howl to show a girl a good time," Joseph joked before bowing his head and leaving. This time the gang managed to get out of the square without being stopped again. Howl wondered if maybe he had misled Sophie into something. They had told Madam Rosemary they were 'together' and Joseph good as assumed. If they knew the whole city would know.

They walked in silence for a little while. Sophie couldn't help scowling, glancing at Howl, and snorting loud to show she was not impressed with him. It made Howl's heart pound and he didn't like it. He'd forgotten what it felt to have a heart. Finally, Sophie began the quiz Howl had been dreading, "So, who is Madam Cynthia?"

He assumed a strong and dignified posture as he walked and talked, "I assure you, my dear, it was not love."

"It never is with you," Sophie accused. "You never take into account the feelings of these poor girls, do you?"

That hurt Howl; he liked to think all he ever thought about were Sophie's feelings these days. He knew deep down she was talking about the _before_, but part of him worried if it was a hint at her disappointment with their relationship. So far he had not said 'Marry me' because there was never the right time. All he could do is spread the news and hope it would eventually lead him to marriage. He thought the problem was that he was shy. He'd never been so shy about a girl but Sophie had slain him.

He wanted to change the subject but Sophie wouldn't let him, "Odd that this Cynthia was attacked the same night that tiger attacked me."

Howl groaned and so did Michael, "Not the tiger again!" they chanted.

"Yes, the tiger!" Sophie snapped, going on. "I mean that other girl was attacked but they didn't hurt her. Just covered her in magic powder decided they didn't want her any more, and ran off. Why would they do that?"

"Maybe they decided she wasn't their type," Howl suggested, not very interested. "They would have run twice as fast if they did get hold of that Madam Margot; she is a sight if ever their was one. Twenty-one and already with grey locks, a sour face and a skinny as her mother it round. She makes Jane Farrier look like Cinderella. Once more she has a personality to match, known for having the worst personality in Ingary, and she's up against some stiff competition."

Sophie wondered what he was implying but that but decided not to pursue it. She just went on, "Well, there still may be a link. Two odd things happened on the same night."

"Alright," Howl admitted, bringing out a hand to count his fingers, "if what you saw was real and not a figment of your overactive imagination and if Cynthia is telling the truth, which she may not be doing. When I was courting her she kept telling me that the Ambassador of High Norland chased her through the streets with a knife. Poor many was so shocked he nearly fell off his crutches. Just like their mothers Cynthia and Margot are known fibbers for attention. You heard it yourself, Ben Suliman said there was nothing wrong with her when he checked, it may not have happened."

Sophie snorted, "Fine, how about this. If I see this tiger again or there is another attack of this nature, then will you believe I saw a tiger in the place of flowers?"

"If," Howl began with a chuckle, "I see the tiger myself then will I believe you saw a blue tiger in the place of flowers. If there is another attack on a young girl similar to what happened here the other night, then I might believe Cynthia wasn't lying. If I see that a band of blue tigers with magic powder is attacking girls in street, then I'll believe they are connected."

Sophie snorted. Howl changed the subject, "We're nearly at the library!"

"Oh joy," the girl replied sarcastically. The second great library of Kingsbury was just ahead. The sight of it made Sophie gasp. It was such a beautiful building with two glass domes and one stone dome. Sophie had heard that it was commissioned by King Albert III when the first library burnt down to be the pride and joy of the capital. She'd always wanted to see it as the pictures and drawings in text books just didn't cut the beauty. "It's beautiful!" she cried delightedly, changing her tone completely.

And all Howl could do was smile.

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	6. IW: They are lost in translation

**You know the drill; I don't own HMC, Diana Wynne Jones does. The next chapter might take a while to come up because I have a lot of coursework. I tend to take less time when I receive more reviews. If I get none then I don't bother as much. Be fair though, I did say I'd get this up by Sunday and it is Sunday. I just have a lot of coursework.**

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**Chapter ****Six: In which they are lost in translation**

The Kingsbury Library seemed even bigger inside than outside. As soon as you got in you saw the inside of the huge stone dome. There was a gap at the top where the sun shone through at noon on a sunny day. There were a set of stairs on each side of the room that went up in a circle and spiralled around the room. On all sides of the room, on each layer of stairs, there was a door which led into one of the glass rooms filled with rows and rows of books. On the bottom floor there was a round desk where several librarians helping other patrons. Sophie looked about like a child, tilting her head up to look though the gap in the roof. She wondered what happened when it rained. She soon found out as Michael accidentally trod in a little narrow fountain running through the floors. There was a beautiful marble pool just underneath it. It was very clean water though so they obviously kept it well. As Michael stumbled out of the pool both he and Sophie noticed a plaque under the water. It read:

IN THE MEMORY OF  
SORCERESS ISEULT  
SHE SAVED THE KING  
PUT OUT THE FIRE  
AND STOLE MY HEART

Both looked up again, staring in awe at the vastness of the building. It seemed to go on and on, up and up, forever and forever. Sophie turned her head level with the horizon again to see Howl looking at the directions high above the desk in the centre. It was a list of which way to find all the books. Sophie rushed to his side to have a look also. Michael lingered behind, still looking at the space around him.

"Right," Howl muttered to himself, looking up at the board. "So all the books are upstairs and the magic and spell books are in the right wing of the library, and not far from modern languages; Ingrish, Strangian, Norish, and others… oh! Ancient languages and translations, right wing of the building 985 to 998, my, that's a long way away…"

"Do you need any help?" called one librarian. She was the only one stilling behind the desk doing nothing. Obviously the highest ranking librarian despite the fact she was very young; in her twenties, wearing thick glasses and with poker made curls. "You look puzzled."

"No, I'm fine," Howl said briefly smiling and rushing towards the stairs on the right side of the room. Sophie and Michael exchanged a glance before rushing up behind him.

Michael looked around as he did so, obviously confused, "But, if all the books are upstairs then what is all this down here?"

"It's the public records office," Sophie replied, remembering her history lesions. "It was the only part of the old library that didn't burn and was able to be saved. The records go back over three hundred years."

Howl turned to look at her, fairly impressed, "You certainly liked your history. Well, then answer this Miss Nose; do you remember who the architect who rebuilt the great library was?"

Sophie thought for a moment, "I believe his name was Cecil Garrett."

"Indeed," Howl said rushing through the first door they came to. Sophie and Michael both lingered to look at the sign above the door. It read 'HISTORY – LANGUAGES – GEOGRAPHY' over head. Sophie followed the speaking voice rushing through the rows of books, "He disappeared not long afterwards. The King sent out a search party for him to no avail. Ah, here we are; languages! Tell me, Miss Nose, what to you know about language?"

"I know I speak standard Ingrish," she said, standing behind him as he looked down the rows and rows of books. They were beautifully well kept. Sophie had read that librarians had been trained in basic book keeping spells, to disenchant any book mites. "What do you mean by 'what do I know'?"

"Well," he said running his fingers against the spines, "do you know how language develops over time?"

"Of course I do!" Sophie said; feeling a little insulted that he'd think she wouldn't. "I did do this in school. What of it anyway? Calcifer said this was a language for hiding things, not an ancient language."

"Oh, and have _you_ seen it in use lately?" he said sarcastically, He was taking down several books, slowly pilling them into Michael's open arms, on top of Annette's book. "If an alphabet or language is in disuse then I think it's fair to assume it is ancient."

"I suppose," Sophie admitted.

"Good," Howl said, taking several more books off the shelf, "you can start on these." He piled the entire content of his arms into hers. Sophie nearly tumbled backwards under the weight. She was tempted to throw them all down on his foot but her eyes caught his smile too quickly, and she was mollified. Instead, she snorted to show she was not happy and stormed off to find Michael. Howl called after her, "I'll be along in a minute."

"I'm counting the seconds," she muttered in reply.

Sophie found Michael sitting at a large desk with four comfortable chairs; he was relaxing after that long walk. Sitting down, Sophie realised just how tired her legs were. After being an old woman she found she could take longer distances more. Yet it was still a comfort.

She looked about the room they were in. Looking to her left she saw that there was a sort of 'deck' that the study desks were all on. She could see the book shelves and the light of summer's day shining in over the shelves. They were shaped in a circle with row upon row of books, lined up in a spiral formation. The circle of books was under one of the huge glass domes. The light shone through blocked only by the plants growing up and around it. It must have taken years to complete, Sophie thought as she turned to look on her right. The right was just the long corridor leading out to the main hall. Every so many meters there was about round door leading to the large circle baloney connecting the other rooms to the other domes of books. In between each door there was a window serving no purpose but to look pretty.

Howl dropped more heavy books right next to Sophie with a loud slam. Nearly leaping out of her skin, she looked up at Howl with a glare, who looked back apologetically. He remembered that something like that would have set her heart off when she was an old lady. "Sorry," he said honestly. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

It was things like his new found honesty that got at Sophie's heart now. She glared at him and opened one of the books to hide any blushes. "It's your manners that are frightening, Howl."

"I don't know," Howl said as he slid into the chair next to her. "I like to think I'm a gentleman when it comes to manners. I've got better manners than most men do." He opened Annette's old spell book to the page with the strange writing on it. It was marked with the copy he had made. He handed the copy to Michael while placing the book between Sophie and him on the table. "Can you see it alright?" he asked.

"Thank you," Sophie said neutrally. Truth was she was very aware of the fact Howl was sitting so close to her. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Anything that resembles this," he said plainly, hurt by her impartial tone. "Just try and find a symbol that resembles one in the book. It takes a while, but it is how I got through old translations in university."

Sophie looked down at the old dusty book she had opened. The smell was strong with age and dust that it burnt the inside of Sophie's nose. It had clearly been here longer than this new library had been. It was difficult to get into it as the paper was so fragile and the writing was so small. Not wanting to spend ages on one book, she scanned hard to make sure there was nothing identical. Glancing at Howl again she saw he was working at a much quicker pace. He was clearly used to this. He had been to university, after all.

After about an hour of looking through books non-stop, Sophie finally looked up. She saw Michael with his head flat on the table, clearly already sick of this. Howl was still working but much slower than before. She stared into space for a while for nothing better to do before finally looking down at what she was supposed to be translating. It was then she had a thought. "Howl?" she said glancing at him, "Is this just an ancient alphabet, or is it a completely different language?"

"It's like a code," he explained. "It's an alphabet but at the same time like a code. Like Calcifer said, it was used by the first settlers in here to hide magic spells from enemies."

"So it's the same as if is now, the way it would have been spelt behind the code," Sophie asked, "and the language?"

"Of course," Howl said, opening another book. "That's why once we find the alphabet we'll be able to work it out simply."

Sophie took out a piece of paper, which Howl had provided for them, and copied out the letters from the book. "Let's think, what is the most common letter in the Ingrish language?"

Howl thought he could see where she was going with this, "Supposedly 'e', then it would be 't' and then 'a'."

"So, we can assume that whoever wrote this," she explained as she labelled the most common letters, "will use the letter 'e' at least a couple of times. We just look for the most common symbol."

Sophie did this quickly, and was almost distracted by the scent of Howl leaning over to see what she was doing. He wasn't wearing nearly as much aftershave as he normally did. He almost smelt like a normal person. Ironically, this made Sophie feel dizzier than his normal scents would. Clearing her throat she found a possible candidate for the letter 'e', which was a vertical line with four horizontal lines running through it.

"So," she began.

"Now the letter 't'?" Howl asked.

Sophie smiled and scanned quite easily to find them; there were several near their identified 'e' letters, with another letter in between. Sophie straight away labelled this as an 'h', before looking to Howl and smiling; "Now we know what the 'e' and 't' are. And we can assume that is an 'h' because then we have the word 'the'. See? That way all we have to do is find out what code it is and what it was used for."

Howl tilted his head, "Are you sure you could work this out using this method?"

"Well," she said, stilling working her way along, "I could get at least a few of the letters. If you find the alphabet then you can fill in the gaps."

He watched her work on and smiled, "How do you do it?"

"I like this sort of thing," she explained. "I did them a lot at school."

So, they went on with their work. Howl wandered off not long after the third hour to have a look around and Michael had lost interest in the second. He had decided to look at the history book and read them. Sophie kept working, coming up with all sorts of possibilities for each of the strange symbols as letters. She had done well considering everything. Finally after a while she looked up to see Michael's face buried in a large book labelled up the spine 'HISTORY OF INGARY'. He had been interested in it all with all of Sophie's talk and Calcifer's story, and this was his chance to look some of it up.

"Sophie," he said once he saw her looking at him, "what period of history did you study?"

"Depends when you mean I studied," she replied, putting down her pen. "I have studied many periods, though the one I remember best is the one I did in my last year, which was five hundred years of history before the reign of King Augustus III to the present day."

"I think this ancient history is better," Michael said looking down at his book. "The things they did back then were awfully sad. And cruel, and exciting, even though I bet a lot of it is mythology."

Sophie sighed; Michael obviously wanted her to ask him what he was reading so he could tell someone. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Michael excitedly looked down at what he was reading and spoke aloud, "It goes right back to the first settlers in Ingary. They came to escape persecution from their old home. They were all witches and wizards and other humans who believed in magic. Here they practised white magic unharmed for a couple of years. Then, one year there was a huge famine and it was blamed on the original tribe leader, Nereus. There was clay and salt in the lands they had lived on, and they said it was the work of black magic. Without any evidence, they exiled their leader to live on that land for the rest of his days, where he starved to death."

"How sad," Sophie said, only really half listening but trying to sound interested. "What did the people do after that?"

"Well," the young man went on excitedly, "After a while the lands became inhospitable; they had to move beyond the forests, to where Kingsbury is now, and left the lands that some historians think was the same lands as the wastes today. The people also blamed their leader's daughter, Viviane. They thought she was the witch how had tried to starve them despite the fact she had always used her magic for good. Apparently, she had been angered by one of the farmer's sons who had tried to seduce her but failed. He claimed she did this to punish them. Viviane was forced to wander the forests for the rest of her life."

Sophie muttered for him to go on while working on her code and wondering where Howl had got to.

"Viviane travelled for a hundred days before she finally found a large lake with clean water and orange trees growing around. She slept, drank and ate. Then, one day she decided to bathe in the lake. As soon as she stepped in a spirit visited her. It said that she was chosen to protect the people from the evil forces of the land. Viviane was told to go back to the settlement of Kingsbury to stop the evil forces of a native fairy called Eris. Renewed with the powers of the spirit, she returned to the new settlement of Kingsbury and vanquished the black fairy by chanting a special spell the spirit told her. Once the fight was over, the new king, Arthur I, was very grateful to Viviane and recognised her as the former leader's daughter. He acknowledged that she was not guilty of black magic, and asked her to return to the city. Viviane met and fell in love with a young wizard called Myrddin. Together they had a daughter. It was this day Eris swore revenge of Viviane; she cursed the line saying that there would never be a baby boy born in her family line unless Eris's family are completely destroyed. For every generation of girl, once her name is known, the descendants of Eris will spite each one of them. For the next hundred years the followers of Eris would purposely lure out Viviane and her children, and their children, to kill them. Fearing for their daughter's life, Viviane and Myrddin fled to her lake, where they lived for the rest of their days."

The entire tale reminded Sophie of the Witch of the Waste. If this Viviane and this Eris really did exist and really did have descendants running around today, then it wouldn't surprise her if the Witch was the relative of Eris. At the very least she had to be a follower.

She could tell Michael was taken in by the tale, and part of her was also. It was at this point that Howl came back and scoffed at Michael's reading, "What are you doing with those fairytales? We're trying to wean Sophie off the fairytales. It's only mythology, Michael. None of it is true. They are just stories that were passed down over generations and historians dressed up to make it more interesting, fables to explain our origins. I doubt there ever really was a Viviane, or Eris, or Myrddin." He then turned to Sophie, "I hope you can get your head out of the fairytale cloud long enough to do some work. How is it going so far?"

"I've worked out some of the letters," Sophie replied, closing one of the books. "But none of them are in this book."

"There are still some more on the shelves," Howl stated. "It might be in one of them."

That was a subtle hint that he wanted her to go and get them. She huffed out a frustrated sigh and picked up some of the books she already had out to put them back. It took her a while to find the right row of books as there were circles and circles of them. Upon identifying it by the great gap in its shelves, she began to pile on the books she had read while taking off the ones she hadn't. It was a tiring job, and Sophie realised then that she would never want to be a librarian. It would only be worth it for sorting out the books and reading them; but if she had to lug them around everywhere—no way.

She glanced at the books to see if there were any signs of the language being in there, deciding to eliminate some books before taking them back and waiting her time. She was just about to take a very old book off the shelf, so old that its cover was falling off and its pages were also orange with age, a voice called.

"Sophie?" said the man's voice.

She span around knowing straight away who it was. It was Alan Smith, Fanny's new nephew. He looked just a charming and handsome as he had the other day. He wasn't wearing his strange hat today; his hair was black and sleek looking despite being neatly cut and styled. He looked so very respectable and middle class. He wore a similar black suit with a red rose as a button hole.

As soon as he smiled, Sophie smiled too: "Mr. Smith!"

"Alan, please," he said laughing heartily, "Call me Alan, dear Sophie. I hate formalities; you may call my uncle Mr. Smith to your hearts content but I insist you call me Alan."

"I will," Sophie replied with a polite nod. Then she asked the obvious question, "What are you doing here?"

"Never mind that," Alan replied with a chuckle, "what are you doing here? From the way you're piling up the books I imagine you're doing some research, aren't you?"

Before she could say anymore Howl came sweeping around the corner in a hurry. He had a feeling Alan was around; he could _smell_ him from a mile away. Alan turned and offered him a polite smile, to which Howl plastered on the fakest smile imaginable, and spoke. "Why, Alan isn't it? What are you doing here?"

"I'm a book publisher and dealer," Alan explained, both to Howl and Sophie. "My grandfather was also one of the main founders for the library, which my uncle and I still uphold today. I try to hunt around for good, rare books, as well as publish new ones. I then donate them to the library. I am aiming to make this the greatest library of this world."

Sophie thought it remarkable that a man could love books just as much as her. Glancing at Howl, she could tell he was still not convinced of Alan's character. He went on talking to him, "Well, it might be a very fulfilling job, no?"

Alan nodded slowly, "Very much so. But enough of me, what are the pair of you researching? I might be able to help. I know each librarian personally and they are skilfully trained."

"I bet they are," Howl said with a smile. Sophie elbowed him but he didn't wince, instead going on to explain what they were doing, "We are trying to translate that piece of writing in that book we found."

"Do you mean the book belonging to Sophie's mother?" he asked, thinking for a moment before finally suggesting something. "May I have a look at the writing to get an idea of the time period?"

Howl sighed, "If you must."

Sophie and Howl led Alan to where they had been working. Michael was still enjoying his history-mythology book but looked straight up when he saw Alan. Open on the table was the book with the writing, which Alan looked over carefully. The three stood and sat in silence as Alan thought. Finally he looked up and said: "I think the best person to ask is Patricia."

Howl scowled, "Who is this Patricia?"

"Just one of the librarians," Alan replied with a smile. He spoke as he led them back towards the circle balcony and down the spiral stairs, "She's the one who has been here the longest. A bit of a lover for the histories of the country, and the languages and what not. In fact, she gave a talk about it not long ago. Yes, a keen interest does that one have."

The walked back into the main, stone dome and walked to the circle desk at the end. Alan stood in front of one of the women and smiled, "Patricia, we're going to need your help."

Howl and Sophie recognised her straight away as the woman who had offered her help when they came in. As before she just sat there while the others worked, looking dominate and bossy. She wasn't especially old at the same age as Alan or Howl. There was a time when people as old as Howl had felt old to Sophie, but now she looked at all of them with fresh eyes. Patricia had huge, thick glasses on and fashioned a typical librarian hair style with thin messy twirling loops of sausage curls, the colour of ginger. It made Sophie feel better about her own hair seeing this. Patricia had ginger hair, and if Howl had any sense, he'd see Sophie's hair was a much _blonder_ shade of red. To top her off she had big staring eyes; if she put more work into her appearance she would have looked quite pretty.

"Ah!" she said in a very posh-librarian manner, looking. "I saw you all this morning. Finally decided you needed my help, did you?"

Alan laughed and showed her the book, "We're trying to find the book which contains this code. They are trying to translate something in this code."

As soon as Patricia saw it, she nodded excitedly, "Oh yes, yes! I know this one."

"Well, lucky you I don't," Howl replied, still obviously annoyed he had to ask for Alan's help. He made another smile and said, "Them would you be as kind as to show us the book in which it is in."

Patricia smiled and pointed to a book lying on her desk, "One of the girls was just looking at it. It should be in here somewhere."

Howl rolled his eyes and Sophie, finding it amusing and annoying that the book had been with the librarian the whole time, began laughing. Howl looked at her as if she had gone mad. She looked him and smiled, "Sometimes you've just got to laugh, haven't you?"

He then chuckled, "I suppose you do."

Alan had already opened the book looking for the alphabet. Sophie lay down her workings out next to him. He looked up and she explained, "I've been trying to work it out as if it were a code."

"Very clever," he replied, pin-pointing the right conversion. "Here it is, at long last."

Sophie looked at the translations and quickly began to turn the code into a readable sentence. Howl, Alan and Patricia all hovered over Sophie's shoulder to see what she was coming up with. Howl was impressed that Sophie had correctly converted all of the symbols she did alone without the book, deciding in future to ask her to try and covert a code before looking it up.

Finally she was finished and read it out loud. It was similar to another poem and Howl found it quite interesting:

"_Openly the flowers grow around her  
__Inside lives the chosen girl's grace  
__She sleeps in the fields of golden heather  
__Hiding from the evil one's trace  
__Eager to escape this silent place.  
__Please let our divine line live forever"_

Sophie stopped and looked at Howl, "What does that all mean?"

"I'm not sure," Howl said looking thoughtful. "It must mean something in order for it to be hidden so the lay man couldn't read it. I just can't pin-point what. We can read into it later."

He wasn't too keen to let Alan look at it, and purposely stood in his away despite the fact Alan looked as confused as Sophie. Only Patricia seemed to hide her confusion by trying to put on a cheerful voice, although she looked as confused as anyone else, "Oh my, that is a puzzle isn't it? How exciting, I wonder what it means."

Howl folded up the piece of paper a slipped it into his pocket, "We should be going now. We'll put the books back, collect Michael, and be on our way."

He ushered Sophie towards the stairs, not liking that Alan chose to follow them but too polite to push him away. Alan only followed them to the stairs, "Don't worry about putting the books back. We can sort that out. If you're all in a hurry you best get off. Kingsbury is to be very busy this afternoon with the king celebrating the return of his brother. You may want to beat the crowds."

"Thank you," Howl said indifferently before disappearing around the corner.

Sophie turned to look down at Alan, "Don't mind him, he's a little bit edgy around you although I'm not certain why."

"Well," he replied with a dashingly charming smile, "he wouldn't be the first man to be hostile towards a man friendly with his fiancée."

Sophie's blood froze for a second and she was just about to correct him when Howl returned with Michael. He swept past Alan and returned to the counter where he had left Sophie's mother's book. Patricia smiled as he tucked it under his arm, "I've never seen that book before. It seems very old and rare."

"It probably is," Howl said, nodding some before turning for the door. "Come on Michael, Sophie; let's get home before the lunatics in their carriages and parasols get out on the streets."

Realising he had had enough, Sophie rushed down the stairs and passed Alan carefully, who waved after them a smiled, "Have a good day, all of you. I'll tell my uncle and Fanny you said hello."

"Thank you," Sophie said putting her hat back on and rushed to catch up with Howl and Michael. Once outside she let her parasol up again and handed it to Michael, "You looked very uncomfortable last time."

"I'll look stupid!" he exclaimed looking the white parasol.

"Either look stupid or get sick from your brain frying," she replied. Michael took the parasol and held it in front of his face. "If it makes you feel better we can all stand under it."

So the three walkers ducked under the parasol and walked on through the hot, baking streets of Kingsbury. They even noticed a couple of page boys on the side of the road frying an egg on the pavement. Sophie recalled how she and her sisters had done that one very hot summer in Market Chipping.

"Howl, why don't you like Alan?" she asked suddenly.

Howl was ready to slither out, "We might take this verse to Ben Suliman so time soon. For now, I think we should take a break from that book of yours for a while and do something more productive."

"Like what?" Sophie asked. But Howl didn't answer; he had clearly not decided what would be more _productive_ as yet.

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	7. IW: Sophie shrinks to two inches tall

**Again, note the time it takes me to do the chapters. I do do them it just takes me a while. Hopefully I'll have more time next week because I have a bit more free time, but I still have little time for this and need to spend it on my coursework. Bare with me, please. And do review because I update faster if I get reviews.**

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**Chapter ****Seven: In which Sophie and Michael shrink to two inches tall and have an exciting adventure on the floor**

Howl didn't mention the book or the verse again for the next few days. Instead he decided to put Sophie and Michael to work on making spells. Since Michael had one and a half years experience over Sophie, she could tell he was frustrated when his own tutoring was put on hold briefly so she could catch-up.

However after a month of snooping around Howl's spells and listening to him teaching Michael, Sophie picked up on everything very quickly. She could do the easier spells—they were the sort of thing that she could do anyway with her special talent of talking life into things. She could make pepper into a powder that made a duel a fair fight; so she could easily cook up a spell to combat whooping cough or help crops grow. Michael felt both amazed and awkward at Sophie's ability to catch up so quickly.

"It makes me feel a little hapless," he confided in her. "You've managed to pick up on spells in three days that took me a year and a half."

"It comes from my snooping," replied Sophie with a chuckle. "I can understand the spells as long as they don't have Howl's terrible writing all over them."

Sophie and Michael focused on making spells for the customers and running the busy flower shop that had become very popular since word got out about Sophie being there. Howl on the other hand went back and fourth all over the place. Every morning he'd spend a couple of hours showing Sophie and Michael what he wanted them to do. These were the more _complicated_ spells. It was Michael who tried to explain to Sophie how to make the simple ones, like the whooping cough and crop one, but Sophie liked to cut corners by just telling plain powder to do whatever it was she wanted.

Once they were settled he would disappear out the door either orange down or black down. Sophie thought at first he was going to make sure his sister was alright but he kept going back and fourth from black to orange, from orange to black, all through the week. It wouldn't take a week to make sure his sister was alright. It wouldn't take him five minutes. Sophie imagined any call on Megan was a strictly 'quickly in, quickly out' job before she started on at him. Therefore he must have been going to Wales for another reason. But what was it? The reason he was going through orange down was easy; he was going to see Wizard Suliman.

The gang who had attacked Madam Cynthia had attacked again, and again, and each night over that same week. Each time they were doing the same thing; tackling the girl to the ground, checking her over, deciding she was not what they were looking for, and leaving without leaving a scratch. None of the girls had anything to do with Madam Cynthia, each one coming from a class and background different each time. The only thing that was the same was their age; all the girls were aged between fifteen and twenty.

Sophie was advised not to go out without someone with her. It reminded her of the way they used to warn her about Howl. Now she lived in Howl's house she wondered if this gang was as bad as people said it was. Howl was vain but he didn't suck out the souls of young girls, even if he did steal a couple of hearts.

The King had decided they were bounty hunters of some sort. Either an innocent young woman was in danger, or there was a renegade witch walking around. People had begun to worry that a new Witch of the Waste was coming to light. The fear had reached the palace and now he called on the Royal Wizards to aid the kingdom in locating these men and asking them their purpose.

Sophie sat in the flower shop and listened to the gossip. News came in every day of another girl being attacked in the same way. Every evening Howl would come back, not in the mood to talk about his day after listening to young girls babble out what they saw. Suliman was sympathetic but Howl found it all annoying.

"I never thought I'd be so annoyed by so many beautiful girls in one room at once," he told them taking a swig of brandy. "They behave like celebrities who are selling the story about the latest drivel that is their lives. You see something like this happen and all of a sudden every girl in the country wants to say they've been 'checked' by the Ingary Bounty Hunters."

"How do you know they're bounty hunters?" Sophie asked.

"It's the King's term," he replied. "Not mine."

Sophie paused for a moment before going on, "Howl, did any of them say that…"

"No," Howl said, cutting her off.

She scowled, "You don't know what I was going to say."

"You were going to ask if anyone had seen that blue tiger of yours," Howl said, watching her face that showed it was what she was going to say. "For thousand times, there have been no reports of blue tigers anywhere. Why are you so obsessed with it?"

"Because I _saw_ it, Howl," Sophie said. "I saw it with my own two eyes and I want to know there is a reason for why it was there. I want you to believe me."

"Even if I did," he said, "doesn't mean the tiger attacked the girls."

Sophie knew he was right. Maybe she _had_ imagined it because of the poem. Still, it did still puzzle her that it was a blue, not an orange or white, tiger that she had seen. But that was dreams.

Finally at lunch time both Michael and Sophie got their rest. They closed the shop and ate their lunch. Once finished they began putting together the spell Howl had left them to work on together. Michael worked better when he had Sophie's help and it helped Sophie catch up on the lessons she was behind in. This spell was a shrinking spell. Sophie didn't see the point of it—why anyone would need or want something to be made smaller was beyond her.

"Normally people use it with overgrown weeds," Michael explained as they put all the ingredients into a bowl. "Sometimes people need it to reverse a growing spell, like the one we used before Howl's suit, do you remember? Howl would have been able to chant the suit back to normal, but people who come to the door asking for a shrinking spell will need the powder."

Sophie snorted, "Seems like a waste of time. The way to kill weeds is through weed-killer. I could make them some of that." Michael did not like that idea. The only way Sophie made the brilliant weed-killer was if she was angry, and she was scary when she was _that_ angry. It was her version of green slime.

She went on, "So it is used to compliment the growing spell we used before?"

"Yes, I suppose they're part of the same module," Michael replied with a smile.

Once they had put all ingredients together, and worked out the literal and riddle lines, Sophie and Michael felt quite pleased. There was only one thing to do and that was to enchant it. Together they said a long, ridiculous sentence that sounded like rubbish to Sophie but whatever it meant it caused the powder to glitter and shine. Satisfied they had done right, Michael carefully tipped the powder onto the paper ready-made spells were sealed in when a knock came at the door. Both of them looked puzzled.

"Who could that be?" Sophie asked rhetorically.

They both looked at the hearth. Calcifer was not there so there was no one to tell them which door the knocking was coming from. Michael walked towards the door, "Probably just a well-wisher from the Chipping Valley," he said. "We'll just tell them to come back in an hour when Howl's back."

Sophie knew he was right but couldn't help looking out of the window to see if there was anyone outside in the street of Market Chipping. There didn't seem to be anyone there, but she couldn't see the front door very well. She then walked over the hearth and looked up the chimney to see if there was any sign of Calcifer. All she did notice was that the chimney was filthy. That needed a good cleaning. Now Calcifer wasn't always in the house Sophie could give it a proper brush down without the fear of getting the soot on him.

Michael meanwhile had gone to open the mansion door. Turning it orange down, he looked out side to see… nothing. He even stepped out to see if there was someone walking around the house. There was nothing. He was so puzzled he even scratched his head. "That's odd," he said quietly. "It must be the Market Chipping door after all. Maybe someone wants to know when we're opening the shop again, or maybe calling on you."

"Maybe," Sophie said, still looking up the chimney and wondering if Howl had any chimney brushes. Since Sophie had become young again she had received many admirers, calling around to give her gifts much like the people of Porthaven had done when she first turned up at the castle. "Are you going to check?" she said bringing her head out of the chimney.

Michael already was. He opened the door yellow down and saw… nothing. This was starting to get strange. Once again, he stepped out into the street to see nothing. All there was to see was the street Sophie had grown up on, with people passing by but none of them calling on the residence of the house next to the shop.

Again, he closed it and turned to Sophie, who was looking as perplexed as he was. "You don't think it's the black knob down, do you?" she asked.

Michael shrugged. The black knob down had never been knocked on before, as far as he could remember. Both of them had a horrible feeling that, if it was the black knob down, Howl's noisy sister would be waiting on the other side. That was a nasty thought. Sophie had taken an instant dislike to the way Megan went on and on at Howl. She almost sympathised with Howl for putting up with it. Yet, at the same time, she could understand why Megan was frustrated with her younger brother.

Deciding to see, Michael turned the knob black down and opened the door. He wasn't sure what to do next. You couldn't see anything through the black nothing on the other side and neither was sure that the other person could see them or not. They couldn't see or hear them.

"Miss Angorian had had no trouble in coming in," Sophie told Michael from across the room. "Surely if there was someone there they would have walked in by now."

"Yes, I'll agree with that," Michael replied. He had actually stuck his arm out into the nothingness and began grabbing at whatever was there. There was still nothing. Sophie imagined what Howl's sister would think seeing someone's arm grabbing at air from the house next door. Michael pulled his arm back into their world and closed the door. "That leaves the purple down door."

Sophie froze remembering that was the where the blue tiger had come from and started forward. "Wait, Michael, don't!"

But Michael had already opened the door. As soon as he did and great gush of wind blew into the castle. It was so strong it knocked Michael off his feet and whooshed over the work bench. Papers of spells, plates and ingredients in jars all toppled over, some blowing into the empty hearth. A box of matches fell off the side and under bench.

Unfortunately they had forgotten to scrunch up the paper containing their shrinking spell, and the wind blew it off the work bench, and all over Sophie. As soon as it touched her, she began to shrink. Every part of her, body and clothes, swiftly grew smaller and smaller. Sophie watched helplessly as the wind died down and her eye level became lower and lower.

Michael rolled over to his stomach to get on his hands and knees. Looking up he saw Sophie's decrease in size. He gasped, and leaving the door open swinging on its hinges, he tried to scramble over to her to grab her before she became too small for him to see.

"Oh no," he cried, crawling over towards her in a panic, "Sophie!"

By the time he got to her she was merely two inches in height. She was nearly disappearing between cracks in the floor beneath her. She sounded normal to herself but to a panicking Michael, she spoke with a high pitched voice and was barely detectable to the eye.

"Oh dear!" she said, brushing off the powder, "First an old lady and now I'm smaller than the size of my own thumb. I can't be myself for two seconds."

She saw Michael crawl clumsily towards her. He was the size of a giant to her now and his hands were bashing the floor frantically trying to find her. Sophie didn't like how hard he was feeling around, certain he was going to crush her. Screaming, out of fear and to let him know she was still there, she ran for cover before disappearing into a large gap in the floor.

"Michael!" she screamed in her high pitched voice, "Put those hands away! You'll crush me!"

Michael stopped and picked up his hands to look at them, as if to make sure that he hadn't crushed her. Instead what he saw was the powder Sophie had brushed off herself. He rolled his eyes and swore. Slowly, he too began to shrink.

From her gap Sophie watched as Michael came closer and closer to being her size. Once he had disappeared from above her, Sophie climbed out of the crack in the floor and rushed over to where he was. He was trapped by the foot in a small fracture of the floor. Sophie grabbed his hand and together they eased his way out.

Standing up straight they were able to look around them. As a little girl Sophie had always wondered what her home would look like if she was two inches tall. Now she knew. It was huge. It was almost surreal; like climbing the beanstalk to find the giant's home. It was all too much for Michael who had grabbed on to Sophie's arm to keep his balance.

"This all makes me feel very dizzy," he said, shaking nervously.

Sophie didn't answer at first. She walked along the stone floor for a couple of inches before looking up at the work bench. "I wonder where that wind came from," she said looking towards the door. "Calcifer isn't here so the castle isn't moving." She looked back to Michael who rushed to catch up with her. "We left the door open, is that safe?"

"I don't know," Michael said, still shaking.

"You don't know?"

"Well, I've never encountered a wind like that before," he replied honestly.

Sophie looked at the door, "Will Howl be able to get back in the castle with the door open?"

"I think so," Michael said. "I think Howl is the only one besides Calcifer who can open and close the door from any setting."

That was a relief. At least that meant that if the spell didn't wear off Howl could change them back when he got home. But Sophie didn't want to wait for that, and thought it was important to go somewhere that Howl wouldn't step on them on the way in. She looked up at the work bench.

"We should try to climb up there," she said, pointing towards it. "We'll be safer off the floor. You know what Howl's like. He never notices something unless you point it out to them."

Michael looked up at the high work bench and groaned, "Oh, Sophie, do we have to?"

"Do you want to live to see your wedding day?" asked Sophie, already making her way towards the broom, which was leaning up against where the sink was.

Michael groaned again and rushed off with her. It was shocking how long it took them to get there. Even running, Sophie and Michael found it took them a minute to make it across the room, a journey that took them less than two seconds at normal size. "Makes me glad I wasn't born a mouse."

Sophie tried to catch her breath while Michael sat down with a thump into the cold floor. Both of them looked up at the broom. It was a long way to climb, but the only way. From the sink they could climb across the hearth and jump onto the work bench. If Howl wasn't back by then, they could try and take the spell off themselves. The spell books were still there.

It was then Michael had a thought: "Sophie, why don't _you_ try to take the spell off us?"

"Huh?"

"With your talent," he explained. "Try and talk us into turning back to our own sizes."

Sophie shook her head and sighed, "I don't think that will work; it normally only works on objects, like my stick, or the hats, or the flowers. I've never been able to do it for people."

"You might as well try," he said.

Sophie could tell it was any excuse to avoid climbing the broom. There was no harm in trying. She knew it wouldn't work but if it would make Michael climb the broom there was no harm in trying. Besides, it could work. She laid her hands on Michael's arm and began to whisper carefully, "Turn back to the size you're supposed to be. Turn back into the size you're supposed to be. Turn back into the size you're supposed to be…"

She repeated it several times but nothing happened.

Or something did happen but nothing to do with the spell. The sound of her voice had attracted unwanted attention. Over Michael's shoulder, Sophie saw a long, hairy leg rise out from a gap in the floor behind them. The sight of it caused her to grip Michael's arm tightly. He hissed in pain, "Sophie, not so hard!"

"Behind you," she whispered.

"What?" he said.

"_Behind you!_" she said again, whispering sharply.

Michael slowly turned to see what she was talking about and froze still. The pair gripped each other tightly, painfully in fear. Behind them emerged a large, hairy spider. Sophie remembered how she had scared them out of the castle, banged that very broom around to try and kill them when she first arrived. Now it was like the spider had returned for revenge. It would eat her, and Michael, for supper.

Sophie didn't wait to find out if that was the case. She tugged Michael so hard he was nearly pulled over, and dragged him behind her in a desperate sprint. Michael quickly picked up pace and the two helped each other along, jumping the cracks and nooks in the floor, aiming for no where in particular, while the large spider hurried after them with its teeth gnashing.

"What are we going to do?" cried Michael ask they ran.

"Quiet," Sophie snapped back, "I'm trying to think."

Rushing back towards the bench, they were beginning to run out of energy. With the spider hot on their trails, Sophie was certain it would catch them. Then she eyed the box lying under the bench. It was the box of matches. Even thought she was smaller, Sophie was certain she could pick up a match if need be. Keeping hold of Michael's hand, she dragged him towards the bench and to the box lying under it.

"Help me open it!" she ordered Michael.

Together they managed the slide the box open. Instead were a couple of matches. Sophie grabbed the first one she saw. It was large and heavier than she thought it would be. It was like picking up a broken branch. Still, she managed it. Striking it against the floor, the large red flame blared up and she pointed it towards the approaching spider. As soon as the beast saw, it backed away. All animals were trained to fear fire. It back further and further away, until Sophie threw the match at the spider, prompting it to run away and out of sight. The match flame slowly died out and there was silence. All Sophie could hear was Michael's heavy breathing.

"Goodness," said Michael, sitting down on the match box to catch his breath. "I don't think I've ever been so scared."

Sophie was about to reply when another sound filled the room. It was the sound wind approaching. It was coming from outside, where the door was still open and banging against the wall harder and harder as the sound grew louder and louder. This Michael took charge of the situation. He grabbed Sophie's hand and rushed her to the large hole in the floor where Sophie had first hidden.

"If another wind like that is coming," he explained helping her climb into the dark tunnel, "then we wouldn't stand a chance the size we are."

The sound outside grew louder and louder. It was frightening. Both Sophie and Michael listened quietly to the sound approaching them. They looked at each other and then up and the one sight of light above their heads. The great rumbling finally burst into the castle, blowing everything in the room about again, this time with even greater force. The wind blew what remained of the shrinking powder into the crack in the floor. Sophie was worried it would make Michael and her even smaller but it didn't affect them.

"We've already shrunk in size," he explained over the loud wind. "We can't shrink any smaller now. Or at least I hope we don't."

Then suddenly, the wind stopped, as abruptly as it had begun. Sophie dared to peak out of the gap to see what the damage was. She was shocked to see a group of three figures standing in the middle of the room. They were semi-transparent, wearing long cloaks and carrying a small brown bag. She ducked down again and told Michael to be quite. The group walked around the room and spoke in gruff voices. One of them reached into the small bag and pulled out a handful of white powder. He threw it into the air and seemed to sniff it.

"There is something here," one said.

"I can't see anything," second said.

"I can sense it," third said.

"But they must be here," said second. "They let us in."

"This is a house of many doors," third said wisely. "Remember they may have escaped through magic. This magic is unfamiliar to us. It is magic that no one other than Lyonesse could use before. Now, this wizard clearly uses it too. He must be powerful."

Third walked towards where Sophie and Michael were hiding. Stepping on the gap, he blocked out their vision and light, and underneath Sophie had her hand over Michael's mouth to keep him from talking. The man spoke carefully, "I don't know why, but I feel as if someone is watching us."

"Is it them?" asked one.

"I'm not sure," replied third, "It's just a small feeling."

"They have been here," said second.

"Or are here," said third.

"They can't be," said one, "we'd have seen them."

Third walked away, freeing Sophie and Michael's light.

"Doesn't mean they aren't here," said third, thoughtfully.

There was then a panicked rush as second said, worriedly. "Do you hear that? I think the wizard is returning!"

"Damn it!" yelled one, rushing towards the door. "We'll never get a chance like this to get into this strange house!"

"We could trick them again," suggested second, leaving through the door.

"No, the wizard will know we are on to him," replied one. "He'll tell everyone in this castle how to combat the spell. It's not difficult."

"Enough!" ordered third, ushering them out the door. "We need not return. I have seen all there is to see."

"Do we continue our search tonight?" asked one.

"Yes," ordered third, "for her sake we must, or else that blasted…" he paused and pushed them out of the door. "Hurry, the wizard is back. Out, out!"

With that, they disappeared out of the door and slammed the door behind them. The knob automatically made a 'click' and the colour changed from purple to orange down. Then once again there was silence.

Sophie and Michael had kept silent while listening. They looked at each other, still puzzled about what all of it had been about. The scary thing was that three unknown 'things' had got into the castle and had a nosey around.

"Who were they?" whispered Michael. "Do you think they were the bounty hunters?"

Sophie nodded, puzzled as Michael was, "But what do they want with Howl, and who is 'her'? You don't think that one of Howl's ex-lovers has hired a group of bounty hunters to hunt down Howl?"

"I don't know," he replied worriedly.

Suddenly, interrupting their thoughts, a dark shadow fell over the. It was the spider again. It just never seemed to give up. It came towards them from above, sticking its long legs down the crack in the floor. This time Sophie was prepared. She picked up some of the old shrinking powder and whispered to it, "Powder, don't only shrink the spider but destroy its sense of touch too!"

Sophie blew the powder into the face of the spider as if it was a dandelion clock. The spider fell backwards, as if blinded. Falling out of sight, Sophie dared to look out from where she was hiding, slowly the spider began to shrink and it struggled about, unable to feel the vibrations of movement any more. It became so small that it would be undetectable to the human eye but to a shrunken human like Sophie it was the same ratio to her once again.

She picked it up and held it between her hands. She had a good mind to push her palms together and kill the spider that scurried around inside her hand. It had tried to eat her and Michael, after all. Yet, she stopped and thought of Howl. Instead, she hauled the spider over across the floor as far as she could.

"There," she said angrily, "that'll teach it a lesson it won't forget."

Michael carefully climbed out of the gap and looked at her, "Wasn't especially clever, was it?"

Sophie snorted a laugh just as the door clicked opened and to her great relief, Howl rushed through it in a panic, as if he knew something was wrong. She pulled Michael to under the safety of the bench, where the match box was, while Howl bellowed her name over and over again, "Sophie! Sophie! Sophie!"

The shrunken pair lit another match up and waved it above their heads to grab his attention. Howl noticed the little flare and rushed over, kneeling just in front of it. He blew the match out to see Michael and Sophie standing there at two inches tall. He chuckled and picked Michael up by the collar of his waistcoat. Sophie watched as the boy was lifted up towards the work bench, squeaking worriedly: "Please don't drop me!"

"I won't drop you!" he placed Michael on the bench before looking back down to pick up Sophie. He held out the palm of his hand rather than picking her up with the same method as he did Michael. She climbed on and held on tight to his thumb as he hurriedly brought her up to his eye level.

He laughed, "Oh, my dear Sophie! What a pickle you got yourself into!"

"Don't make fun of me," she squeaked. "Just turn us back."

He placed Sophie down on the bench next to Michael and raised his arms. A friendlier wind seemed raise around him and he spoke a strange word. A cloud of smoke fell upon both Sophie and Michael and they straight away began to grow again. As the smoke settled, the pair was at the right sizes, sitting on the bench, looking at Howl's smiling face. He clearly found the whole thing amusing.

Sophie folded her arms, "Stop smiling. It's not funny. Michael and I have walked the desert of this floor, nearly eaten by a spider and nearly attacked by three shadow creatures."

He didn't stop smiling but he nodded in agreement, "I know it isn't funny. At least those shadow creatures aren't," his face finally became serious. "It is a terrible pity they found me so quickly. I was hoping they'd have to work a little harder. Suliman said they had already paid his house a visit while he was out. They seem to know when no one is home."

"But we were home," Michael pointed out.

"You were the size of mice," Howl replied, deep in thought. "I suppose they don't have the ability to sense be spelled humans the size of a woman's thumb. It was a risk they came here because you can't get into the castle unless someone inside lets you in. The only who can open it from outside is me. Therefore they must have sent a distraction. From the look of here they sent something strong… a wind, maybe?"

The pair nodded.

"I thought so," he said, collapsing into a chair. "Sophie, bring the brandy here. I feel like a drink."

Sophie sighed and slipped off the bench. She walked towards the cabinet where the drink was kept and pulled out the bottle. Pouring it into a small glass she handed it to Howl, and snorted, "You'll drink the place dry."

"I'm depressed," he replied, taking a swig. "Can't a man have a moment of sorrow?"

"I don't like you when you're depressed," she said, leaning on the chair. "You get drunk."

Howl looked up at her and smiled, "You should try it sometimes, Sophie. It solves all your problems."

"Drinking won't make your problems go away," Sophie snapped, folding her arms and leaning them on the back of the chair. "You've been having too much of that brandy lately and I want to know why."

Howl put the glass down and sighed, "Oh, Sophie it's just been a bad week. The King is blaming Suliman and me for not finding these hunters faster. Half the girls who come forward are just attention seekers but the King doesn't believe that. I tell you it was awkward today. Some girls I haven't see for years turned up claiming to have been attacked. All we need is to find the Witch is still alive to make the day complete."

Sophie swallowed, "You don't think she is, do you?"

"No," he replied. "Impossible. I destroyed her body and then her heart. The Witch is certainly dead. The King has ordered Suliman and me to sort it out by the end of the year 'before someone gets seriously hurt.' Now they've been to the house, we shall have to go to Suliman tomorrow and talk it over with him."

Sophie stood silently looking down at the top of Howl's head and his white-blond hair. "Howl, you don't think these hunters are after you, do you?"

He shivered, "I seriously don't know anymore. I hope not. The last thing I need is for more ex-girlfriends to pop up," suddenly he leant his head against one of Sophie's hands and said, "For the first time in years I do feel ashamed."

Sophie had felt a little flustered by Howl resting his head on her hand but decided to ignore it, "That must be your heart."

"No," he said glancing up at her with a smile, "I think it must be you."

* * *


	8. IW: Suliman gives his opinion

**Watched the game today between Wales and Scotland. Most of the Brits will know what I mean. It's the rugby game, in case you don't know. I find it much more interesting than football (That's soccer to the US). When it's Wales and Scotland you're guaranteed a good punch up. You know what they say: football is a game for gentlemen played by ruffians, and rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen.**

**If Howl were real I'm sure he'd watch it too. I thought it would get me in the right mood set to finish this chapter. I really haven't been well this week, plus I've had coursework (yes, I know annoying!) My communication studies teacher thought I was dying in yesterday's lesson. Thank God it's half term.**

* * *

**Chapter ****Eight: In which Wizard Suliman gives his opinion**

The next morning Sophie woke very early to work on the mansion drive. She had meant to do it for weeks and since it was a Sunday she saw it as a chance to get it done. Howl had said they were going to Ben Suliman's house today but no one went anywhere early on a Sunday. It was a day of rest, so Sophie was assured that Howl would not wake until nine at the earliest. She was so excited she awoke at the crack of dawn to quickly put on her old grey dress and rush out to the place of flowers to get to work.

Sophie collected some of her flower pots that had been lying around the house and the place of flowers, deciding which flowers to put out there. She had always had an eye for colour and design. It had been a main factor that made her a great seamstress. She chose all sorts of flowers, both traditional and her own, which Howl liked to call her 'children' as a joke about her creation of the mandrake root.

Carrying her 'children' and traditional flowers to the front of the mansion, she straight away began digging at the soil to make it soft. She did this until it was fresh and moist, although she had used a magic spell to help it and used a plant nutrition spell that Howl had shown her how to make. It was one of the first spells he had shown her to make, back when she was an old woman. While she did this she sang to herself and song naïve to her world, one she hadn't heard for many years but remembered the words.

Finally, once satisfied with the soil, she began to plant the flowers. Her favourite self-made flowers were her pink sunflowers. She planted several of them against the walls of the mansion before deciding what flowers to put with them. She decided to put some traditional flowers in one area near the door, and place some of her own flowers at the front. That way, she thought, when people walk past they will remember our flowers for the rest of their lives.

The drive looked beautiful. Although not complete there were pink sunflowers, pinkish violets, and white peonies, white roses, and blue forget-me-nots. Underneath them there were little mayflowers and red clovers. To top it off there were daffodils of all shades of yellow and white. Daffodils were always Sophie's favourite flowers. She worked from half past five till half past nine when finally Howl and Michael awoke, noticing the door was open, and coming out to see her work.

Sophie finally took at the work she had done. Oddly enough there seemed to more flowers, grown and in bloom, than there had when she planted them. Bees buzzed excitedly around the flowers, collecting the pollen to make honey. It was remarkable. It was as if, as she sung, they had been prompted to grow.

"You did all of this in four hours?" Michael said, amazed. "It's like Mrs Fairfax's house, or maybe even prettier. I can't believe you managed to do this in one morning! Sophie, your magical talent is just amazing…"

Howl looked and around, also amazed, and chuckled, "And who but my lady Sophie."

Sophie wiped of her hands on her dress and then tried to brush it off. Howl didn't understand why she bothered with that ugly grey dress. Finally the three of them walked into the castle, Sophie washed her hands and was glad to see Calcifer blare up. She had started to miss not seeing him there every morning. He knew that he was expected to bend his head down to be cooked on, and looked early up at Sophie, hoping she still might bribe him.

"Bend your head down," Sophie said, "and I'll give you the shells of the eggs and rids off the bacon."

That was a suitable bargain for Calcifer and he bent his head down for the frying pan. It seemed liked only yesterday Sophie had to bribe him into doing as she wanted. There was no point in bullying him now as there was no way to do it. Besides, Sophie felt grateful to Calcifer for keeping his end of the bargain in turning her back into a young woman. The least she could do is giving him what he wanted, which wasn't much as humans didn't eat egg shells and Michael nearly choked on bacon rids.

There was another reason too: she wanted to butter Calcifer up so that, when Howl told him the story about what happened to Michael and her, she knew he'd snort blue smoke all over the place in amusement.

Oddly enough Howl didn't mention anything about it. His mind was else where, probably thinking about his trip to see Suliman. Sophie had heard from Lettie and Mrs. Fairfax that Suliman lived in Kingsbury. That would mean yet another long walk through the valley to get there. She didn't think Michael would like that.

Once breakfast was over Howl went into the bathroom to get read for going out and Sophie climbed into her cubby-hole, closing the curtains so she could get dressed. She took like opportunity to look through her old boxes of clothes, shoes and hats. She gave a quick polish to her comfortable dove grey boots that she wore everywhere these days before putting on her crimson dress that Fanny had bought her. She finally emerged brushing her hair when Howl at the same time came out of the bathroom.

Sophie turned to face him, quite surprised, "You seem to be spending less and less time in the bathroom these days."

"I never thought I'd hear you complaining about the lack of time I spend in the bathroom," Howl replied, brushing back his hair as if to check there was nothing about him that had prompted this statement made by Sophie. "Do I look alright?"

"You look fine," Sophie said, "but I was just wondering why you are spending so little time in the bathroom. You normally spend at least an hour in there, even when you're worried. You've been in there for no less than twenty-minutes."

"Timing me now, are you?" Howl replied, starting to get annoyed. "Well maybe it would please you if I just go back into the bathroom and sit quietly in there for the next one hour and forty minutes!"

"Don't be childish," she replied, folding her arms. "I'm just saying."

"No, you're _nagging_," he accused.

Sophie glared at him before she remembered what Michael had once again about Howl and the bathroom. It had occurred to her that day when he came to save her in the wastes that Howl must love someone very much in order to leave the castle without making himself look presentable first. It still didn't make sense. No one was in any danger. Howl was distracted by something. Sophie didn't think it could be her it had to be these bounty hunters. They had come to the castle after all. He had a right to be distracted.

Howl looked her dress and changed the subject, "You seem attached to that dress."

She scowled, "I like it."

"I'm not complaining," he began, "anymore than you just were, anyway. I just thought you' would like to make a change from grey or crimson."

"I don't," she stated.

"Fine," he replied. "Shall we get going then?"

"Fine," Sophie said bluntly making her way to the door. Howl turned the knob orange down and opened it on the mansion door. Just as they stepped outside, Sophie turned and called to Michael, "Are you coming with us?"

Michael shook his head, "No, I promised Martha I'd visit her today because it's her day off. Howl said it would be okay."

Sophie looked at Howl. He shrugged, "It's not the end of the world is it if you have to come with me, is it?" Sophie couldn't help blushing a little while he chuckled, "I hope I'm not that bad company."

Unable to think of anything else to do she snorted, marched out the door and down the drive. Howl laughed again and rushed after her. She stormed ahead of him until the end of the street before Howl caught up with her and walked beside her, whistling a tune she did not recognise from the many tunes that passed through his lips. He occasionally hummed and whispered a couple of words. It made Sophie feel awkward in her silence.

"Alright, alright," Sophie said, finally breaking the soundless void. "What exactly do you intend to ask Suliman about?"

"About what happened yesterday," Howl said, interrupting his song. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell him exactly what happened, to give us a good idea of what we're looking for. The sooner we find these men the sooner the king will go back to giving me transport spells and seven-league-boots to make."

"Speaking of seven-league-boots," Sophie said, "do you intend to make us another pair? If I have to walk all the way through the Vale End one more time to get to Kingsbury I think it'll kill me."

"Oh," Howl said, reaching in a pocket inside his blue and silver suit, "I didn't know it bothered you that much."

Suddenly, he brought out his hand and threw what looked like a bluish powder to the ground. Smoke jumped up at them and fogged Sophie's sight for a moment. It chocked her, and she waved the pale blue, sparkly mist away to reveal that they were no longer standing in the Chipping Valley at Vale End but instead in a smart street, clean cut with a fence around every tree and smart carriages passing by.

Sophie turned to look a Howl, "You could have done that all along?"

"Well, yes but you never asked if there was a faster way," he said, raising his hand in the air to block sight of Sophie's mouth, as if it would silence her. "Besides, it isn't perfect. I couldn't remember exactly what Suliman's house looked like. The powder only works perfectly if you can remember clearly what the building looks like. It takes you to the nearest thing they can find that looks like what you're thinking about."

Sophie snorted, "Well it wouldn't be too difficult to find that library, would it? It's the big thing with three glass domes and one stone one."

Howl just smiled pleasantly, "In future you better say 'I don't feel like walking' and then I'll do it."

She snorted again and looked down the street, "Lead the way, great magician. I certainly don't know which house it is."

"Indeed," said Howl. "I'm not letting you loose in Kingsbury on your own again. Last time you could have been killed on the spot by the Witch. If she had known you knew me she would have too. You attract trouble."

Sophie scoffed, "And you don't?"

"Of course I do," he chuckled. "I attracted you, didn't I?"

Sophie wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean but decided not to pursue it. Instead she just followed him down the street. It was a grand street with large houses with large gardens, where the houses had names and the numbers were in letters. They were not as wholesome as the mansions in the Chipping Valley but twice as pretentious. Each one was painted richly, each one looked very stately, and Sophie imaged some of the snobbiest people in Ingary resided down this street. It was surprising how someone as simple as Wizard Suliman could stand to be near such people. She assumed he preferred it there because it was close to palace, which was right behind them, and close to his wealthy patrons. It was very familiar.

"Isn't this the same street where Mrs Pentstemmon lived?" Sophie asked. "I think I've been here before."

"Yes," Howl said stiffly, still mourning for his old tutor, even if he had dropped the black farce. Although he was clearly upset the last couple of days where he was in 'mourning' were something of a joke. "Mrs Pentstemmon's husband was quite a wealthy magician himself but no match for his wife. It is tragic for men like me that all the good magicians in history have been women."

"Talented," Sophie pointed out, "not always good. The Witch of the Waste certainly wasn't 'good', was she?"

Howl didn't reply, and just pointed to the house at the end of the street. "There it is," he said. "That is Wizard Suliman's home—you can remember it as the one with the red door. He's lived here ever since he became Royal Wizard. Frankly I couldn't stand to live in this area too long."

Sophie scoffed again, "Is that because there are more ex-girlfriends turning up?"

Howl chuckled, "That was always the benefits of living in an enchanted moving castle. If I faced a lawsuit I could just move it somewhere else."

Sophie rolled her eyes and snorted as Howl bounded up the pathway to ring the bell before stepping back, waiting for the door to open. A stiff looking butler opened the door and spoke with a dull and dreary voice. He spoke like doom, "Yes?"

"Good morning, Manfred," Howl said cheerfully. "I've come to see Suliman. Yesterday he suggested I drop by and help him with a couple of things."

"Ah, yes," said the dreary butler, dragging every syllable. "He is expecting you. Do come in, Wizard Howl."

"Thank you," replied Howl. He extended his arm and swept Sophie into it, pulling her to his side, "This is Sophie Hatter, my student and sister of Lettie Hatter, Mrs Fairfax's student."

"Yes, I saw the resemblance," replied Manfred, moving to one side to allow them to enter. "Do come in both of you. My master is in his study, you know the way, Wizard Howl."

Howl nodded politely and pushed Sophie through the door, hands on her shoulders, guiding her into the large hall. The tiles were black and white like a chessboard, and it reminded her of the tiles in the flower shop. A long stairs ran up around the room and across the scale of the room, doors all around the landing, leading to other rooms. The living room was to the left and the dinning hall to the right. Howl motioned her towards a small door ahead of them.

He didn't bother to knock. He just opened the door and walked inside, "Suliman, good to see you."

The craggy old face of Suliman looked up. He had been playing a tune on his guitar that sounded like the same song Howl had been humming and whistling earlier. He was a friendly looked man and had a warm, kind smile. "Howl, good to see you. I didn't expect you so early."

"I hope I'm not interrupting."

"Oh no," Suliman said as he was standing. "I'm glad to get away from all of those reports of attack from the police. I just didn't expect you to get here so quickly." At that moment he noticed Sophie standing in the door way, before glancing at Howl again. He then extended a hand to Sophie, inviting her into the room. "Excuse me, Sophie, I didn't see you there."

Sophie smiled, "That's alright. I don't really know why Howl brought me along at all."

"Because you're the one who knows what happened the other day," he pointed out to her. He then looked at Suliman, "I came here for several reasons. The first and third involve Sophie, the second was the reason I originally wished to speak to you. Firstly, the other day when we were at the palace dealing with all of those weeping girls, someone broke into my castle, and from what Sophie and Michael have told me they might be our men."

Suliman went pale and motioned them both into chairs before sitting down too, "That is terrible news, Howl. It means that they know who we are, or at least who you are."

"Indeed," Howl replied. "I'd advise you to put a protection spell on and always check before you open the door. They caught Sophie and Michael off guard by sending a wind ahead of them to keep the door open."

"I will put that spell up right away," Suliman said, making a note on some paper. He then looked at Sophie, "Did you see them?"

"I saw them," she replied, not feeling helpful in what she remembered. "I mean, I saw they were wearing dark cloaks and they couldn't be seen. I could identify their faces, I'm afraid."

Suliman nodded. He understood that these men were unlikely to remove their cloaks where anyone could have seen them. "Did you hear anything interesting?"

Sophie thought for a moment. It had been very difficult being only two inches tall at the time but she could remember a couple of things. "They said that something was there. They might have been talking about Michael and me, though. We were hiding you see and they might have sensed the magic even if they couldn't see us. They then mentioned someone called Lyonesse and…"

Both Suliman and Howl started up and spoke in chorus, _"What!"_

"They said something about someone called Lyonesse, said that before Howl, only she could do the type of magic he used," she explained. "Why, who is Lyonesse?"

Suliman was about to explain when Howl interrupted.

"That doesn't matter," he said quickly. "What did they say next?"

Sophie was still curious about this Lyonesse but went on nonetheless, "Anyway, they sensed Howl coming back and were upset, saying they wouldn't get another chance to come in the castle because he'd be on to them. They then said they had to continue their 'search' for 'her sake… or else that blasted'…"

Both wizards looked at her intently, "Yes?" asked Suliman.

"I'm sorry," Sophie said, guilty she had nothing else to say. "They left at that because Howl came home." Suliman sighed while Howl looked thoughtfully at Sophie. "I'm sorry I can't be more helpful," she added, glancing at Howl from the corner of her eye.

Suliman shook his head politely, "No, no don't worry about it, Sophie. It's better than nothing. At least it has been confirmed that they are searching for someone or something and that it is a 'she' they are looking for."

"That goes without saying," Howl said, coming out of his thoughts. "These men have been tackling young women to the ground of all people. Trouble is we don't know why still. It doesn't seem to be aggressive, though. The girls were 'checked' rather than attacked and they appear to feel they are doing it for her sake."

He then chuckled and looked at Suliman, "I say, it is a puzzle isn't it old dog?"

Suliman chuckled at the statement and nodded, "Yes it is. Tell me though, how did Sophie and young Michael hide from those hunters?"

"They had accidentally turned themselves to the size of a woman's thumb," Howl explained, chuckling too. Seeing the glaring look from Sophie he cleared his throat and moved on. "Well, the second thing I wanted to ask you about was the attacks themselves. Have there been any more between the last time I saw you and now."

"Of course there have," Suliman replied. "We have received twenty only this morning. The secret police narrowed them down to what appear to be actual cases. I just don't understand it. I'll have to see these women soon too to ask what happened."

Howl shivered, "Weeping and crying? I hated it when a woman is crying."

Suliman looked at Sophie and said quietly, "A couple of old… friends of Howl's turned up yesterday."

Sophie rolled her eyes, "Yes, I know he told me. He was at the brandy again, too."

"I don't blame him," replied Suliman. "I was this close to having a drop myself."

"Oh, Howl never misses a chance these days to get the brandy out…"

Howl cleared his throat loudly, "Excuse me! I am still here, you know."

Sophie looked at him and a faint smile spread across her lips. She then moved back to the point, curious to ask about the victims herself. "Tell me," she stopped briefly, "sorry, do you prefer Ben or Suliman or Wizard Suliman?"

"Just call me Ben."

"Alright," she continued. "Tell me Ben is there anything to connect any of the genuine cases of these 'attacks'?"

Suliman shook his head, "Nothing in terms of class at least. There is nothing any of the girls have in common as they come from different classes; different backgrounds and none of them had ever met each other before. The one thing they do have in common is their age."

"What about their age?" she asked.

"All of them so far have been aged between fifteen and twenty-one," Howl interrupted, drawing attention in his direction. "Another interesting thing is that they all seem to have been attacked in certain places in the country. The attacks have all occurred in Kingsbury, Porthaven, or Upper Folding."

"There has been one in Lower Folding now," Suliman added, holding up a report from the police. "They seem to be moving very close to Market Chipping. I plan to send a warning to the mayor there. He will send a warning out to the women and girls in the area. You have a shop there, don't you?" Howl and Sophie nodded. "Better warn customers and tell them not to panic."

Sophie smirked a little, "That's like tells lambs a wolf won't eat them. The people in Market Chipping panic at the smallest things."

"That's what Lettie and Annabel said," Suliman replied. "Well, let them worry. It might encourage them to be more careful."

"Typical that as soon as their fear of Wizard Howl is gone they should fear these bounty hunters," Sophie said thoughtfully. "At least these men don't hurt the girls in any way. Just scare them."

Suliman nodded before looking back at Howl, "What was the third thing you wished to ask me?"

Howl reached into his pocket and look out a scrap of paper. Sophie knew what it was. It was the translation from Sophie's mother's book. She was wondering when he was going to produce that again, especially since his curiosity had no bounds to anything less than danger.

"We translated that passage in Annette Hatter's book that we could read before," Howl explained, handing it to Suliman. "It doesn't look like a spell, but rather a piece of poetry, so if it is magical it is likely to be a charm. The question is for what reason did Annette, or anyone, put that chant on the passage?"

Suliman read it out loud:

"_Openly the flowers grow around her  
__Inside lives the chosen girl's grace  
__She sleeps in the fields of golden heather  
__Hiding from the evil one's trace  
__Eager to escape this silent place.  
__Please let our divine line live forever"_

"It's certainly nothing from our world," he concluded, handing it back to Howl. "It does seem like a poem, although as you say it could be a charm. I'm really the wrong person to ask about charms. On the other hand it might be a fortune. I have seen some fortunes look like that. There is certainly something odd about that verse."

Howl nodded, "There's something strange about it, like it doesn't flow properly. I'll certainly look into that idea of a fortune. You are right that it doesn't come from our world. Now that you mention it, there were some poems from our world in the books."

"Really?" asked Suliman curiously.

"Yes, and one of them was 'The Tyger', which appears to have created an optical allusion for Sophie," he said looking at her, "and one she won't drop."

Sophie glared at him before meeting Suliman's eyes. He seemed curious, "Why, what did you see?"

"A blue tiger," she said quietly.

"How strange," Suliman said, thinking about it. It was nice to see he was considering it after only seeing Howl laugh at the idea. "Well, I can look into it, if you'd like."

"It would keep Sophie off the subject," input Howl. Sophie was very close to hitting him. He just smiled at her, "A happy Sophie is a happy moving castle."

"You don't like anything unpleasant, you mean?"

"Alas, Sophie, you do me wrong," replied Howl in false honesty. "I never doubted you saw a tiger. I just didn't agree it had anything to do with attacks."

Sophie was sure he was lying but couldn't be bothered to think back to what he had said before about the tiger to contradict him. Instead she chose to terminate their conversation with Suliman. At least she would have a chance to yell at him on their way to the fortune teller.

"Clearly we are getting in your way," she told Suliman politely. "If I argue with him now we shall bring the house down. I think we best be on our way."

Suliman nodded, not really wanting to witness a fight between Sophie and Howl, "Very well, but I'd ask a fortune teller like that Sybil who lives in the valley. She is quite old and would recognise it if it were a fortune."

Howl nodded, "We'll go and ask her on the way home."

He made his way towards door and out of it. Sophie moved to follow when Suliman spoke up, "Be careful with him won't you, Sophie?"

Sophie turned to look at him and chuckled, "Oh, Ben! I told you before that I didn't need a watch dog and I still don't need one. I can take care of myself."

"Lettie is worried about you," Suliman began. "After all he did…"

"Lettie doesn't like Howl," Sophie finished. "She hates him and doesn't trust him. She may think she knows him but she doesn't. I know him better than she does. I can keep control of my own feelings."

"You're not safe alone in that house with him," he said.

"I'm not alone," she pointed out. "Michael and Calcifer are there with me."

Suliman sighed, "Just be careful. I can tell how you feel about him. Don't expect too much of him. Just because he has his heart again doesn't mean he'll get out of old habits. He was a heart breaker long before be lost his heart."

"Sophie!" called Howl from the hall.

Sophie sighed, "I _know_ what Howl is like. I assure you I can look after myself. Howl isn't perfect; he's vain, a cad and a womanizer. But he's got another thing coming if he intends to make me one of _those_ girls. Thank Lettie for her concern but this isn't about her. I am capable of looking after myself."

She swept out the door before another word could be uttered. It did make her think though. What chance did a little grey mouse have in taming _that_ blue coated tiger?

* * *


	9. IW: A fortune teller and another attack

**A friend of mine keeps telling me to read the Harry Potter books. If I'm honest I never really got past the **_first_** book. I found Harry Potter a bit… boring. They were nothing special for me. I'm picky when it comes to books, I'm afraid. I've never read the Harry Potter books properly, I admit it! I just scanned through them to keep up with the gossip. I haven't seen any of the films passed film three either.**

**Since I have only had one review for the last chapter I'll be taking a little longer with the next chapter. I have tones of home work to do, anyway.**

* * *

**Chapter ****Nine: In which there is a fortune teller and another attack**

Sophie didn't say much on their way back to the fortune teller. She was pondering what Suliman had told her. Although she didn't want to admit it, she knew he was right about Howl. He had been cad and troublesome long before he knew Calcifer. The strange part of it was that Sophie had the overwhelming desire to defend Howl against the bad press that he himself had spread in order to ensure a peaceful life. She knew that he was faulted but she wouldn't accept that he was wicked because he just wasn't, and it was silly to pretend he was. Sophie had been lying about who she was for two months when she was under the Witch's curse, and now she intended to be true to herself and encourage others to do the same.

Howl was whistling again from lack of conversation. He went through was seemed to be the whole of the song before he broke the silence. "Sophie dear," he said casually. "If we've had another argument please tell me what it was about. I'd rather argue with you than have the silent treatment."

"Who is Lyonesse?" asked Sophie suddenly.

"It's always the same," he said defensively, his tone changing completely. "Who is Madam Cynthia and who is Lyonesse? You're such a jealous little mouse, aren't you? I can't believe you don't trust me!"

"Don't flatter yourself, I'm not jealous. I was just asking a question," she snapped. "I take it she's another one of your—"

Howl's eyes widened, "No, of course not!"

Sophie didn't know whether to believe him or not. He was trying to slither out again and this time Sophie couldn't be bothered to stop him. She folded her arms and said, "Would you like me to change the subject?"

"Please."

"Fine," she replied. "Who is this Sybil? I don't imagine she's an ex-lover."

"Certainly not, she's hundreds of years old!" Howl said quickly. "I mean she really _is_ old, not like you who really was eighteen but just looked old."

"The Witch of the Waste was over a hundred years old," Sophie pointed out. "That didn't stop you."

Howl ignored the statement and moved on, "She was one of ten sisters and they were all named Sibylla."

"That must have been confusing."

"No more confusing than having two Lettie Hatters." Sophie was about to point of that that was different, since Michael's Lettie was really Martha, but Howl went on with his story. "This Sibylla is the last of the ten sisters left alive. Basically, they are prophetesses. I have never believed in seeing the future or anything like that, but they do sometimes get out riddles, verses, things that appear like poems but are really fortunes, or more accurately predictions."

"But the verse doesn't look like it's predicting anything," Sophie said, thinking of it in her head. It seemed more occupied with speaking of what she imagined as a girl in a field of flowers. "It sounds like a poem."

"Sometimes fortunes are like that," Howl explained. "They sometimes say what they mean and sometimes they're a puzzle."

"Like a spell?" Sophie asked.

"Exactly, only complete rubbish."

"So you don't believe in predicting the future?" Sophie said, stating what appeared to be obvious, "Why not?"

"Because I don't like to believe that I'm not in control of my future," Howl replied. "It's no different from the way everyone assumes here that the youngest daughter of three will get the best of everything just because she was born youngest. Are we then to believe that had she never been born the eldest of three will have had a more successful life? The birth of a sibling may change the person but it never changes their luck. Remember that."

"I'll remember," said Sophie, thinking that what Howl said was quite profound. "It's just the custom here in Ingary, you know that."

"Superstition, that's all," Howl said. "We have that where I come from. None of that fairytale rubbish, though. With us it is things like… a black cat crossing your path is bad luck; walking under a ladder is bad luck, breaking a mirror is bad luck and killing a spider is bad luck."

Sophie snorted, finding everything Howl said ridiculous. "What nonsense! Is there anything in your society that _isn't_ bad luck? Black cats are beautiful creatures, and a ladder isn't going to hurt you unless you knock it and the person on top falls on you. As for the spiders…" she thought for a second before continuing, "is that another reason why you won't let me kill those spiders?"

"No, I told you why I don't like to kill spiders," he replied. "I admit I'm superstitious enough to avoid walking under the ladder if I can help it but not so much that I let it rule my life the way you do. You say the superstition in you world is ridiculous. That is just how I feel about the ones your world has."

Sophie found it interesting, "It's funny how things develop differently, isn't it?"

"Indeed," said Howl. "Where I come from people are generally suspicious about things that happen in this world. A good example is fairies. They don't exist where I come from."

"No?"

"No, but they exist here."

"Maybe people can predict the future here too," Sophie suggested.

"Unless you can see the future, which means looking forward through time itself, then it's not possible," Howl stated, this time stating it very firmly. "You can look back in time and even go there if you want, but not the future."

"So," said Sophie thinking about this Sybil. "What if she was to have come from the future and stayed here in the past and that was how she knew?"

"Because that's just silly, Sophie," Howl replied. "Sibylla is respected but she is no sorceress. She does have enough magic charms to create special effects though to make her look more impressive. Trouble is they always seem to go wrong. She was never as good as her sisters at magic."

Sophie lowered her eyes at him, "How do you know all of this about her? Are you sure you haven't met her?"

"I haven't met her, exactly," he replied. "She was the Good Fairy Godmother at Princess Valeria's christening."

They walked down the stone paved road until they came to a narrow dirt road, which Howl motioned Sophie down. They walked across a long field with over grown glass that smelt damp from the rain and dew. It was much warmer now and the smell was all the stronger, complimented by the sounds of insects living in the stalks. At the end of the road was a small cottage. It looked so peaceful and quaint that Sophie found it hard to believe that there was a woman who had played Good Fairy Godmother to Princess Valeria.

Howl pointed at the cottage, "There it is; the home of the last of the Sybil sisters. Don't be put off by the look of the place. Once was a time she had a nice home in Kingsbury, but last year she retired in favour of doing simple fortunes for locals. Trouble is that—"

Howl was cut off by a mighty explosion from inside the cottage. It shook the earth, almost knocking Sophie and Howl to the ground. They looked up to see a great eruption of red, glittering smoke burst out of the chimney, forcing its way out, breaking the small stone turrets on top and crumbing it to the ground. Sophie watched as the red puff of smoke shot up into the air like a fire work and exploded above their heads in a burst of orange and gold that was visible even in the day sun. There was normal grey smoke emerging from the windows and from under the door, and the sound of coughing rouse up from the cottage.

The pair rushed towards the door. It wasn't locked and Howl just walked in. A whiff of more grey and white smoke puffed into their faces as they made their way in to the dark, misty house.

"Sibylla?" called Howl, covering his mouth with a trailing sleeve.

The old sounds of coughing cleared and turned into a raspy cackle of laughter, not much different from the way Sophie's had sounded when she was old. An old figure was standing up right and walked forward through the smoke, "Oh dear! By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!"

Howl laughed, while Sophie tried to look at the woman who was amusing him so much. As the gust of smoke cleared she saw an old woman standing in front of them with a large smile on her face. She looked much better for her age than Sophie had done when under the curse, and could stand up right. When Sophie had imagined a fortune teller like a Sybil, she had imagined a woman in a long yellow dress and large headdress. This woman wore a very simple blue dress with a fancy black apron and blue ribbon. Her hair was a mess, and she wore simple slippers rather than proper shoes.

The old woman opened a couple more windows before finding her way to a seat. She sighed happily, glad to get off her legs it seemed, and looked straight at Howl.

"Greetings, Sibylla," he said cheerfully.

"Something wicked, indeed," she said with a slightly disapproving look. "Howell it has been a while since I've seen you. Last time I had the pleasure of your company was at Princess Valeria's christening."

"That's just not true," Howl replied defensively. "I saw you at Mrs. Pentstemmon's funeral. You don't think I wouldn't attend that, do you?"

Sibylla nodded, realising something, "I had inkling that red setter was you but I couldn't be sure. I was never good at detecting spells. You could have come to say hello."

"I would have too," Howl protested. "But even you must have noticed an uninvited guest sneaking about looking for trouble."

"You mean the Witch of the Waste?" asked Sibylla. "I thought that white cat was her too, foolish of you to chase it, young man."

"I was just getting into character," he said. "I thought that if I chased her I'd not only get her away from the funeral but convince her I was a dog."

During this conversation Sophie looked around the cottage. Now the air was cleared she saw that it was quite large inside with high walls and strange ingredients hanging from the beams, much like in the moving castle. There were windows in the roof at the back of the castle that were stained glass, depicting scenes Sophie couldn't place in or put a story to. There was a fireplace with a normal fire burning in it, (It was odd as Sophie had been so used to Calcifer she had almost forgotten what real fire looked like), and a hook to hang a kettle. It was very wholesome, and she could understand why Sibylla chose this as opposed to a house in Kingsbury like Wizard Suliman had.

"What on earth were you doing just now?" Howl asked.

"I felt someone coming down the road so I thought I'd give them a scare," old Sibylla cackled. "I'm an old and rich woman who doesn't need to deal with young whippersnappers wanting to know if it will be a good crop this year."

Sophie rolled her eyes. This woman was no different from Howl and the moving castle. Not wanting to be bothered by people, they choose to use special effects to keep people away. Far from the all-knowing oracle of stories, this woman seemed ditzy and careless. It made it all the more amusing.

Sibylla looked over Howl's shoulder to see the young girl, looking with interest around the cottage. "And who is your lady-friend?"

Sophie spun around quickly to look at Sibylla. On sight, the old woman's eyes widened and she looked curiously at Sophie, as if she saw something or knew something. "Have I seen you before?" she asked.

Sophie shook her head, "I don't think so."

"This is Sophie," Howl introduced. "She is my new student. I met her about two months ago, so I don't think you would have met her."

"Oh," Sibylla said, waving it off with a smile. "Silly me, she must remind me of someone else. The name does sound a bit familiar, though. I don't know why. Maybe there was another girl I knew who had that name and looked a bit like you. I've had a long life, you see. I have met so many people I get confused. I apologise."

"That's alright," Sophie said, understanding how easy it was to get mixed up in old age.

Sibylla motioned for the pair to sit in two wooden chairs that on the snap of her fingers, walked up behind Howl and Sophie, sweeping them to sit down before finally settling in front of Sibylla. She cackled again, "Enchanted chairs. Everything in my house is enchanted, you see. It's just a simple spell that any old fairy can do. Trouble is they will only do things for other people and nothing for me."

Sophie was confused, "But these chairs came forward when you asked them to."

"Yes, but that was because they are letting you sit down," Sibylla explained with a sigh. "When I want something it always goes wrong. One time when I had guests around they spilt things all over the place. My brooms automatically clean them up because they are enchanted to do so. When I spill something I have to pick up after myself but the mob and broom just sit their idly."

"That's too bad," Sophie said, feeling sorry for her.

"It is," said Sibylla. "Well, I suppose you would both like a cup of tea, no?"

"Not for me, thank you," Howl said gratefully.

"Yes, please," Sophie said politely.

As soon as Sophie said yes, the kettle swung onto the fire and began to boil straight away. It then unhooked itself and landed on a tea carry where a cup was waiting for it. The bowl of sugar and the jug of milk jumped onto the tray while the boiling water poured itself into a tea pot. The tea carry wheeled over to where Sophie was sitting and stopped in front of her. She leant forward to pour the tea out but the tea pot poured, rather clumsily, the tea into the cup. It seemed to fight with the milk that was also being poured into the cup. Once the cup was filled, the sugar bowl trod nosily up to the cup and began to put sugar into the cup.

"Say when," said Sibylla.

"Oh," Sophie said, mesmerised by the bowl and spoon, "When!"

Sibylla snapped her fingers again and spoon then collapsed into the cup. Sophie leant over to pick it up. She was surprised to see the spoon still stirring.

"You don't have to do that, you know," she told the spoon.

At her suggestion it stopped. She lifted it out and placed it on the tea tray. Sibylla watched this with her eyebrows raised, "How odd!"

"What is?" asked Howl, who had been watching the spoon with some amusement.

"Well, the spoon…" she began, but she brushed it off. "Oh, never mind! It's nothing important. What I do find odd is why you've decided to call on me after not talking to me for so long, young Howell. You have never believed in my work."

"No," Howl admitted. "I still don't, and I admit I have come here for more than your company."

Sibylla smiled, "I thought as much. Tell me all about while I make myself some tea."

"Why can't they do it, again?" Sophie asked, thinking it silly.

"I'm a Sybil and a Good Fairy at that," Sibylla explained getting to her feet. "My charms have to be used for other people and not for selfish reasons."

"It's not much to ask them to make you a cup of tea," Sophie said.

Sibylla chuckled, "These objects don't see any reason in things because they are inanimate objects."

"I think they are the ones who are selfish," Sophie stated, scowling at the objects on the tray.

"They are enchanted objects," Sibylla said with a chuckle. "They can't feel guilt over what you are saying, and they certainly can't pity me."

Sophie just stared hard at the tray, leaning towards them to whisper, "Why don't you go and make her a cup of tea? It's not much to ask, is it? If you don't then I'll accidentally, on purpose, knock you off this tea carry. Understand?"

The tea carry did nothing for a brief moment. Sophie glared at it while Howl watched intently, waiting to see what would happen. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then the sugar bowl and milk jug rattled. The tea carry seemed to shiver until eventually it slowly wheeled itself back towards the kitchen.

"Now kettle, boil," Sophie called, leaning on the back of her chair to watch what was going on. The kettle slowly swung itself over the fire again and boiled the water. "And I suggest the lot of you talk those cups into coming out too."

Sibylla sat in amazement. She looked at Howl, "How did she do that? Those appliances cannot do things for me, and even if they could, they are only supposed to obey me."

"Sophie has a special talent that I am… investigating," Howl explained, glancing at the wheeling tea carry as it returned to Sibylla with her own cup of tea. "I'm trying to figure out more about it and then help her to control it."

Sibylla looked at Sophie with astonishment, "You have the power of charm in your speech. How interesting…" she then closed her eyes as if deep it thought, "They say that those who have that power were gifted by Viviane."

"Mythology," Howl said, rolling his eyes. "None of it is true, Sibylla."

"Howell, I have lived many more years than you," the old woman replied. "Although real-life is never as fancy as the ones told in stories, they are never far from the truth. They are simply turned into stories and riddles, just like my predictions."

Howl sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the piece of paper with the verse on it and handed it to her. "We came across this in an old book. I took it to Suliman to ask his opinion and he said it might be a fortune, and advised me to ask you."

Sibylla took one look at it and handed it back to him as if it was volatile. She seemed to choke on her own breath, "It is a fortune but it's not one of mine. One of my sisters conducted it for a witch many years ago."

"Do you know what it means?"

"Howell, don't ask that!" Sibylla said with a strained voice. "You know that Good Fairies always have to speak the truth! You don't want to know the truth!"

"It's not real," Howl said.

"Then why do you care?"

"Because I'm curious," he replied, clutching the paper. He glanced up to see Sophie looking at the piece of paper, as if attempting to read it upside down. "We found it in a book, spent hours trying to get it translated and now we want to know what it means."

"Well," Sibylla sighed, "one good things about not being about to tell the truth is that a Sybil cannot untangle riddles for you. We can only give you hints."

"Then please could you give me a hint?"

"It's right in front of you," Sibylla replied simply.

Howl and Sophie looked at the paper, then each other, and then at Sibylla. "Huh?" said Sophie. "What do you mean?" asked Howl.

"I can't answer that!" Sibylla cackled. "It's a hint."

Howl looked at the paper again, "It's right in front of me, eh?"

"Yes, it is _right_ in front of you," repeated Sibylla.

Sophie sighed, "And you can't tell us anymore?"

"I've given him his hint," the old woman replied. "You can have one if you want." Sophie nodded, the puzzle starting to get to her too. The woman cackled again, "Look at the full stop."

Now tilting her own head Sophie took the verse from Howl and looked at the verse. She had never noticed the full stop before. Glancing down it she finally noticed that it was the second line from the end, "_Eager to escape this silent place." _It did seem odd that the full stop was there, rather than at the end of the verse.

Howl slipped it out of her hands and back into his pocket, "Well, we'll figure it out, I'm sure."

"Well," said Sibylla, picking up her cup of tea, "I'd rather you didn't because some things are best left alone." She looked at Sophie, "Thank you very much for talking sense into my things into making me this cup of tea. It was very nice of you. Do take care of yourself and b careful with that power of yours, you might attract unwanted attention."

Sophie nodded, "I've had my share of unwanted attention. I think I'll be fine, but thank you nonetheless."

"Yes," Sibylla said before sipping some tea. "I can tell you have. Thank you both for coming to see me. I don't normally like guests but you have both been charming company."

"Thank you," Sophie said, being motioned to the door by Howl.

Howl was just about to step out the door himself when Sibylla spoke up again, "She was cursed by the Witch of the Waste, wasn't she?"

He turned around and nodded, "Yes, she was. The Witch got a little bit jealous of that special talent of hers and turned her into an old woman."

"Just be grateful that's all she did," Sibylla said. "She could have just killed her on the spot, just like Lyonesse, among others."

Howl nodded slowly, "Yes, I know. But the Witch's powers had diminished slowly after her fire demon refused to let her use all its magic. She nearly did kill Sophie—the curse she put on her shortened her life by sixty years, so she would have died quickly had that curse not been removed."

"Just remember that the Witch may be dead but there are many who followed her back in her years of glory," Sibylla warned. "The next few months will be hard for you, but things will get better as long as you do the right thing. For what it's worth, I think you will get your happily ever after in the end. I can see why you like her."

Howl didn't pretend to be surprised that Sibylla guessed. Instead, he thanked her and smiled before closing the door, and whistling up the pathway to catch-up with Sophie.

Both Howl and Sophie went home thinking about their hints. Whatever the answer was, it was right in front of them and it had something to do with the full stop at the end of the second to last line. Neither of them spoke much on their way back to Vale End. Howl just looked at the verse as they walked along, whispering it to himself. Just as they entered their neighbourhood, he finally spoke up.

"Maybe your hint," he said, "'look at the full stop' means that this line isn't in the right place."

"You mean the lines are in the wrong order?" asked Sophie.

"Well," he said, handing it to her. "At least that one might be."

"Okay, so instead of _'Please let our divine line live forever' _it becomes, _'Eager to escape this silent place.'_" She shook her head, switching around the two lines around, "But then it makes even less sense."

Howl sighed and took it from her hands to put away in his pocket, "We'll have a look at it later."

Finally returning home, Sophie was amazed at how well her garden had come along since that morning. It was in full bloom and insects were buzzing excitedly around the flowers. Some people in the neighbourhood slowed down as they walked passed the house just to have a look. It made Sophie feel proud of her work.

Getting inside the castle both of them felt like sitting down and having a rest. There was no sign of Michael or Calcifer. Howl quickly rushed for the chair in front of the hearth. Sophie sighed, wondering if Michael was in the flower shop.

She climbed through the broom cupboard to see the door wide open but no one there. That was very odd. She rushed down to the shop to make sure nothing had been taken. Nothing appeared to be missing. A spell book was left open on the counter. It was as if Michael had been there, but rushed out for whatever reason. She began to worry; it was unlike Michael to rush off without good reason.

To make matters worse there was no sound, not even the swinging door seemed to make a sound. The street outside was normally filled with people entering and exiting shops, or on their way to Market Square. It wasn't a Sunday so the shops were open. Yet there was no one outside. It was unnatural for a busy like Market Chipping. It was proof something had happened, something shocking.

Fear and curiosity began to set in.

Sophie was just about to rush back into the castle and tell Howl so they could head off to Market Square to see what was going on when Michael came rushing back through the shop door. He was panting heavily, as if he had ran at full speed from wherever he had been and back without stopping for breath.

"S-Sophie, come quick!" said Michael, gasping for air.

"Why, what is it?" she asked. Deep down she knew what was coming, but she didn't want to worry before she had to. "What's happened?"

"It's Martha," he said clearly in a state of shock, eyes wide with terror. "It's Martha. There's been another attack. Martha!"

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End file.
